The City of Rock Island is currently installing sharrows on city streets, indicating that the marked
areas are appropriate for bicyclists and vehicles. Sharrows are a pavement marking designed
to help increase motorists' attention to sharing the roadway with bicyclists. This approach is
generally used where street widths cannot accommodate bike lanes. Rock Island is the first
Quad Cities community to install sharrows on city streets, and is doing so as part of the City's
Bikeways Plan.
In areas where there is no on-street parking, the sharrows are being installed 4 feet from the
curb. Where on-street parking is permitted, the sharrows are being installed 11 feet from the
curb to allow for parked cars.
Ed Barsotti, Executive Director of League of Illinois Bicyclists explains, "Sharrows let motorists
know that they may see bicyclists more often on a particular road. Sharrows also tell cyclists
where best to position themselves on the road. Sharrow markings are on the right side of the
road, since wrong-way riding, against the flow of traffic, is both illegal and unsafe. Bicyclists
on the right side are better seen at intersections, which is critical for bike safety. Sharrows
are placed a few feet from parked cars, to prevent car doors from opening into the path of
a bicyclist. If there's no parking, sharrows are a few feet from the road edge, since riding on
the edge encourages cars to unsafely 'squeeze by' in the same lane, with less than the legal
minimum three feet of passing clearance."
