Sharrows Coming to Hermosa Beach

Photo: Ron Felsing/Flickr

On July 28th 2009, the City of Hermosa Beach approved its Bikeways Master Plan. Hermosa Beach is a 1.7-square-mile South Bay city with a population of about 20,000. Their bike plan is a one-page map in a 5-page staff report, done in-house. Hermosa’s City Council meeting videos and documents are very conveniently archived and indexed on the city’s website. 

The plan calls for sharrows
on many of the major streets throughout the city, including Hermosa
Avenue, Pier Avenue, Monterey Boulevard, Ardmore Avenue, Valley Drive,
Longfellow Avenue, and portions of 2nd Street and 22nd Street. The
remainder of the plan is bike lanes on Gould Avenue/Artesia Boulevard,
and, of course, the existing beach bike path.

Last week, on September 22nd, the Hermosa Beach City Council appoved the implementation of the city’s initial sharrows pilot for the entire designated stretch of Hermosa Avenue,
about 1.5 miles. The part of Hermosa Ave north of 24th Street already
has a parallel 2-way cycletrack path, so the sharrows would end
there. Director of Public Works / City Engineer Richard Morgan promoted
the sharrow lanes as important for both cyclist safety and for rider
and driver awareness that bikes belong on city streets.  Some commenters on a Daily Breeze article
and one councilmember expressed concerns that cyclists don’t always
obey traffic laws, nonetheless the planned pilot passed unanimously.

City Engineer Morgan reported that the one-street sharrows pilot
will cost the city about $2,000 and would be completed in January 2010.
The city of L.A.’s approximately $100,000 ten-street sharrows pilot is targeted for implentation around that time, too. Any bets on which city will get its sharrows painted first?