A local small town recently implemented sharrows. At the same time, traffic calming was also instituted by eliminating shoulders and creating bump outs for pedestrian crossings which surround parking areas, so there is no place for a cyclist to go, other than in the traffic lane. The real rub, is the posted speed limit is 30 MPH which is primarily a corridor for heavy trucks and pickups. The result is, either a cyclist hauls-@$$ (for me that is about 24-25 MPH) still slowing traffic, or you get off the sharrow and wind through residential areas to avoid it. Depending on how strong I feel on a certain day….

However for cyclists new to that rural town/area, that don’t know the back-streets, riding the sharrow can be dicey since many that use that roadway have a less than sympathetic view of cyclists.

I believe that application was wrong with a 30 MPH speed limit. If the limit had been reduced to 20, then if a cyclist is doing 15, there would probably be more tolerance. This is not to say I am opposed to sharrows in general. Just opposed to an improper implementation, without creating signage for alternate bike routes don’t place one in such a vulnerable position.