Photo: Todd Boulanger
At the recently completed annual meeting of the National Committee on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (NCUTCD), they voted 35-0 to endorse shared lane markings (aka sharrows) and forward the recommendation to the Federal Highway Administration.
From there, it is a small step into officialdom… inclusion in the next edition of the Manual of Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD).
The MUTCD is a book maintained by the Federal Government and it’s the official manual used by traffic engineers and transportation planners nationwide. Before any new traffic control signage, device or marking can be official, it must be added to the MUTCD.
In Portland, we have been “testing” sharrows for several years (along with other innovative stuff like blue bike lanes), and today’s announcement means we will likely be seeing much more of them on streets throughout the city.
According to one local planner familiar with the process it means that we’ll be seeing, “More sharrows, in more places!”
PDOT has been doing a video analysis on the ones in NW Portland. Maybe we’ll hear more details on that soon.
For more on sharrows, read these FAQs from PDOT.