“Sharrows” will appear on city streets within six weeks, encouraging motorists and cyclists to share the road.
The symbols (pictured here on a street on Austin, Texas) will be painted on the pavement to indicate designated biking routes through town.
The Board of Aldermen voted Thursday evening to allow the city to receive $40,000 of federal reimbursement money from the Greater New Haven Transit District to help pay for the sharrows project.
The total cost will be $115,000 to $125,000, according to East Rock Aldermen Justin Elicker, chair of the Board of Aldermen’s City Services and Environmental Policy Committee.
The money to pay for the project has already been allocated in the budget for Fiscal Year 09 – 10, said Elicker.
A company called Hi-Way Safety Systems won the bidding process and the project will be complete by the end of June, said Mike Piscitelli, director of the traffic and parking department.
Sharrows will be painted to indicate bike routes on portions of State, Orange, Grove, and George Streets. There will also be a bike route marked to and from Westville, by way of Chapel Street and Edgewood Avenue. The project includes the installation of signs to guide cyclists to Union Station. See background here.
“We’re very pleased,” said Piscitelli.
“I think it’s a great idea,” said Elicker.
He noted that Yale recently painted sharrows to mark a bike route through a parking lot near its biology building on Whitney Avenue. Elicker said he has biked through there daily for three years and he’s noticed the difference the sharrows have made.
“You just feel like you belong there,” he said.
“This is only the beginning,” Elicker said. He said he hopes the presence of sharrows will inspire more bike-friendly measures. “People will realize it’s a great thing.”