The City of Fort Lauderdale has begun implementing sharrows in select sections of the city. A sharrow is a pavement marking indicating a shared travel lane between bicyclists and motorists. The bright green sign with a white bicycle and arrows lets bicyclists know they may use the full lane when following the middle of the arrows. The signs also alert motorists to the possibility of cyclists on the roadway.
The sharrow program is part of the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) improvement project for US1. For now, Fort Lauderdale sharrows will be located along local streets that are parallel to Sunrise Boulevard and through Holiday Park, between Searstown and the Gateway intersection. Affected streets include North Victoria Park Road, NE 11th Street, North Flagler Drive, G. Harold Martin Drive, NE 9th Street, NE 18th Avenue, NE 9th Place and NE 20th Avenue.
City of Fort Lauderdale alternate bicycle routes with shared lane marking, or sharrow.
Sharrows are different than bike lanes, which reserves a section of the roadway for bicyclists only. Sharrows have been popular in Canada, Czech Republic and France for years. Similar to the sign in Fort Lauderdale, a bicycle is pictured with arrows. Germany has a similar system, albeit not as formalized.
Fort Lauderdale sharrows is another commitment the city is making to alternate modes of transportation. In 2013, the city welcomed the Broward B-Cycle bicycle sharing program.
