New Sharrows and Green Paint Appearing in Philly

While paint is less valuable in keeping streets safe than physical barriers, it does play a big role in how Philadelphia manages traffic. You may have seen new sharrows and green paint popping up around town this summer; there is more paint to come. The Mayor’s Office of Transportation & Utilities has been blogging about these projects.

Green Conflict Zones

In many places a bike lane and travel lane intersect to facilitate turns. Philadelphia uses green paint to draw extra attention to these spaces. One of the early such conflict zones was heading west off the South Street Bridge at 33rd Street. Green paint is going in at 36 different places around Philadelphia. The MOTU blog has the full list.

Sharrows

Thirteen miles of streets have already received or are going to receive sharrows this summer. These symbols indicate the place in the lane where it is safest for bicyclists to ride. The MOTU blog has the map, and have prepared the graphic below about sharrows’ uses.