Sharrows do not belong on major roads. They are supposed to be for low volume low speed neighborways. Sharrows means there's some kind of political barrier to safe street design. It's a compromise.
These stretches of Mass Ave, while busy, are not particularly high-speed (except for very particular "races" such as from Rindge to Franks Steakhouse)
From Central to Trowbridge (the threshold of Harvard) are effectively 1-lane and do move pretty slowly. I'm a 12mph kinda biker and regularly find myself out-commuting the cars from Central to the Arlington/MVP line (about 3 to 4 days per week).
A protected bike lane, or a bus-and-bike lane would be awesome, but in the meantime, I'd be happy for the sharrows. The right lane in many stretches is overwide and I'd be grateful for some help either nudging cars fully leftward to (or over) the dotted line (which works OK...the real problem is the people who drive down the *middle* of the right lane when they pass us people on bikes.), or out of the right lane when passing, such as here at Rindge (photo from the
PB campaign)
^That cyclist looks suspiciously like me:nerdy with orange backpack, though I think I ride further left out of the door zone.
Most Mass Ave users already know that there's going to be a mix of bikes and 77 buses. (whichever garage staffs the 77s is, by now, fully educated on sharing, even if we still see complaints about drivers on other routes) I commuted Mass Ave by car for a year before I switched to bike so I've seen both sides and I think there's a general social pact that makes it work.
Howie Carr wrote a column complaining how the bikes were beating him on "outer" Mass Ave (he said it was bikes running red lights, which is too common, but the reality is I stop for all reds and still beat the cars at rush hours). Yes, he's wrong, but he understands that the Car ain't King on Mass Ave--even though he hates it, he knows there's a dynamic that requires him to change (New signs put "the howies" on notice for paying more attention).
The signs and sharrows are really to alert the occasional and outside "visitor" cars that need some help tuning in to the local "feel" of Mass Ave. The New Hampshire cars and work pickups, in particular, seem to drive like they're still in Nashua, and I like that Cambridge will be sending them the message "No, really, you need to drive differently here." (even if there is, as yet, no bike lane).
