6th Street in Newport this morning.
(Photo: Daniella Crowder)
The small coastal town of Newport, Oregon continues to show exciting signs of life for bicycling.
Reader Daniella Crowder (she’s also co-owner of the Bike Newport bike shop) tells us the City of Newport is installing sharrows this morning on 6th Street. Crowder says she thinks Newport is the first coastal community in Oregon to use sharrows.
Sharrows, or shared-lane-markings, are a pavement symbol used to let road users know that bicycles are expected to use the full lane. Sharrows were given official federal blessing back in December 2009, which makes it much easier (bureaucratically) for city transportation agencies to install them.
Crowder says the new sharrows couldn’t have come at a better time. “These are being painted just in time for our “Bike to School with the Mayor Day” scheduled for this Friday.” Newport Mayor Mark McConnell is slated to join a group of parents and kids on Friday to help raise awareness of biking to school.