Originally Posted by livedarklions

Sharrows are one of the few things that turn out to be better in practice than they sound in theory. I could see if there's only one such street in the city, it probably would not be that effective, but that hasn't been my experience.

Idon't know if you're familiar with Boston, but it might be the least rationally laid out street system of any major city in North America. There's a lot of major streets that are just too narrow and irregularly routed to be able to retrofit with a bike lane.

What I have noticed is that the sharrows, which are all over the place, seem to have retrained drivers not to freak out when a bike takes the lane. It also helps with the crazy 5 and 6 way intersections that Boston has so many of to be sitting in one of the lanes rather than trying FRAP in a context where people already have too many lanes to keep track of.

You get honked at or otherwise harassed much less for doing this when there's sharrows.

Basically, they're good driver education tools.

Originally Posted by Daniel4

As long as what works to get new people safely onto their bikes, there shouldn't be a problem.

In Toronto, bike lanes work. Sharrows seem to be marginally better than any confident rider on any street.

Originally Posted by Jim from Boston

… he asked me how Boston compared, and I had to admit urban riding in TO was a lot scarier than in Boston.

In comparing notes, he blamed it on the Mayor, who "drove an SUV," while I praised our mayor for his commitment to cycling, and even hired a former Olympic cyclist as a "Bicycling Czar." It seems our Hubways Bike-Share system is doing well, while your Bixi Bikes is having some difficulty.

Nonetheless, I was impressed with the number of cyclists I saw....