My First Look at the New "Corporal" Sharrows

Last week I was pleasantly surprised to see new sharrows being put down by PBOT on Williams, north of Killingsworth. Later, I also surprised to hear there were new sharrows installed on Holman as well. I was expecting the new sharrows on Holman as part of its designation as a new bike boulevard, I just wasn't expecting them so soon.

"Sharrow" is a contraction of shared lane and arrow. They help people on bicycle identify bike routes and safe lane placement, and make other road users aware that people on bikes are more likely to be present

The new sharrows are much larger than the old bike route signage, as seen below, and use bars similar to a corporal's rank insignia to indicate direction of traffic. They're much more visible to cars as well.

Below are some pictures of the new 'corporal' sharrows. Much like a geologist's rock hammer, the Samba is included for scale. It's a size 9.

1) The old bike route designation.


2) A detail of the new corporal sharrow; I'd need longer legs to get the whole thing in a single shot.


3) A direct size comparison.


4) Sharrows are regularly and frequently placed along the street.