Thousand Oaks Police Department Bicycle Safety Enforcement Announcement

What is a “sharrow”? (From City of Thousand Oaks Website)
A sharrow is a road lane marking that shows a stencil of a bicycle with two chevron markings above it. The purpose of a sharrow is to remind residents to share the road when driving or riding in Thousand Oaks. It's designed for use in areas too narrow for a separate bike lane. Sharrows are about 3 feet wide and 10 feet long. The California Department of Transportation officially adopted the design in 2005. Thousand Oaks will begin stenciling sharrows in September 2008.

Sharrows have several applications in improving safety for cyclists and motorists:

• Sharrows tend to keep bicyclists from riding too close to parked vehicles,
  which puts them at risk for unexpected opening car doors.
• With sharrows on the road, motorists tend to give more space to bicyclists
  that they pass.
• Sharrows help reduce wrong-way riding by bicyclists.
• They help decrease aggressive bicycle-car interactions.
• They can help reduce the level of pedestrian-to-bicycle conflicts on sidewalks.

Visit the New City of Thousand Oaks "BikeSafe" Website!

BikeSafe is a new bicycle safety campaign launched in April 2008 designed to educate the Thousand Oaks community about good riding and driving practices that help keep everyone safe on the road. The campaign focuses on youth and adult cyclists, with an emphasis on the importance of riding with the traffic not against it.

BikeSafe has tips for local bicyclists and drivers, a great local area bike map, bicycling brochures for adults and children (in both English and Spanish), links to other bicycling website, information about local events and other information.

Check it out at www.toaks.org/bike or call the Thousand Oaks Public Works Department at 805.449.2400 for more information.