MORGANTOWN, W.Va. -- Rounding a turn at 20 mph down Falling Run Road toward University Avenue, Steven Nutt cautiously keeps his hands on his bicycle brakes. He rounds a bend and swerves to avoid colliding with a car.
This is normal for Nutt, a graduate student in political science at West Virginia University and member of WVU's cycling team.
"People don't yield to you because you're on a bike," Nutt said about the intersection of Falling Run Road and University Avenue. "It's a bad area. I've almost slammed into five or six cars."
Morgantown will spend $30,000 next spring to apply "Shared Lane" markings and install "Bicycles May Use Full Lane" signs along roadways to raise awareness and encourage residents to ride bicycles.
The markings, which will be 3-by-9-feet symbols on the road surfaces, will include two chevrons above a bicycle.
A proposal was submitted to the traffic commission by the Morgantown Bicycle Board more than a year ago and was approved by city council last January.
The board hopes the markings and signs will send a message to motorists that bicycles belong on roadways, too.
"There's really no difference in the law between bicycles and motor vehicles," Bicycle Board Chairman Frank Gmeindl said. "Unless restricted, all the roadways are appropriate to ride bicycles on. Most cyclists don't know that."
Shared lane markings are an experiment by the Federal Highway Administration in cities where bike lanes are not practical.
Bike lanes are not suited for narrow roads that cannot be widened because they put bicyclists at risk of hitting opened car doors.
To designate bike lanes throughout Morgantown, curb lanes would have to be widened to 5 feet, and the city does not have the money or rights-of-way to do so.
To find a better solution, the bicycle board examined a 2004 study by the San Francisco Department of Parking and Traffic.
The study showed shared lane markings caused 33 percent of cyclists surveyed to ride closer to the center line and 60 percent felt an increase in safety.
In the study bicyclists were more likely to follow the flow of traffic on the right side of the road as well as position themselves away from opening car doors.
As Morgantown City Council has been negotiating with the state Department of Highways, Pittsburgh has applied the markings as an experiment.
That city has yet to compile statistics on the effects of shared lane markings, but Stephan Patchan, Pittsburgh's bicycle and pedestrian coordinator, said he's seen a difference.
"(They're) definitely helping people ride more," Patchan said.
Don Spencer, Morgantown's deputy mayor and a bicycle advocate, has examined the markings in Pittsburgh.
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. -- Rounding a turn at 20 mph down Falling Run Road toward University Avenue, Steven Nutt cautiously keeps his hands on his bicycle brakes. He rounds a bend and swerves to avoid colliding with a car.
This is normal for Nutt, a graduate student in political science at West Virginia University and member of WVU's cycling team.
"People don't yield to you because you're on a bike," Nutt said about the intersection of Falling Run Road and University Avenue. "It's a bad area. I've almost slammed into five or six cars."
Morgantown will spend $30,000 next spring to apply "Shared Lane" markings and install "Bicycles May Use Full Lane" signs along roadways to raise awareness and encourage residents to ride bicycles.
The markings, which will be 3-by-9-feet symbols on the road surfaces, will include two chevrons above a bicycle.
A proposal was submitted to the traffic commission by the Morgantown Bicycle Board more than a year ago and was approved by city council last January.
The board hopes the markings and signs will send a message to motorists that bicycles belong on roadways, too.
"There's really no difference in the law between bicycles and motor vehicles," Bicycle Board Chairman Frank Gmeindl said. "Unless restricted, all the roadways are appropriate to ride bicycles on. Most cyclists don't know that."
Shared lane markings are an experiment by the Federal Highway Administration in cities where bike lanes are not practical.
Bike lanes are not suited for narrow roads that cannot be widened because they put bicyclists at risk of hitting opened car doors.
To designate bike lanes throughout Morgantown, curb lanes would have to be widened to 5 feet, and the city does not have the money or rights-of-way to do so.
To find a better solution, the bicycle board examined a 2004 study by the San Francisco Department of Parking and Traffic.
The study showed shared lane markings caused 33 percent of cyclists surveyed to ride closer to the center line and 60 percent felt an increase in safety.
In the study bicyclists were more likely to follow the flow of traffic on the right side of the road as well as position themselves away from opening car doors.
As Morgantown City Council has been negotiating with the state Department of Highways, Pittsburgh has applied the markings as an experiment.
That city has yet to compile statistics on the effects of shared lane markings, but Stephan Patchan, Pittsburgh's bicycle and pedestrian coordinator, said he's seen a difference.
"(They're) definitely helping people ride more," Patchan said.
Don Spencer, Morgantown's deputy mayor and a bicycle advocate, has examined the markings in Pittsburgh.
"I see more careful traffic, and that is something we want to encourage here in Morgantown as well," Spencer said.
The state highways department agreed to apply "Share the Road" signs along Beechurst Avenue - the only state-maintained road in Morgantown.
"They wanted to see how it works and to see if they should approve it for other cities," said Gmeindl, the bicycle board chairman.
The signs are approved only for roadways with speed limits below 40 mph.
To complement the city's plan, the state agency agreed to install "Share the Road" signs on state-maintained roads around Morgantown, such as Monongahela Boulevard, South University Avenue and Greenbag Road.
City officials had hoped the project would be finished before the fall semester, but negotiations pushed it back.
Morgantown will be the only city in West Virginia with the markings.
West Virginia is ranked last in the country for concerns in regard to bicycle safety, according to the League of American Bicyclists.
The city hopes the markings will cause motorists to use more caution in maneuvering around slow-moving bicyclists when going up hills or around turns.
In 2006, 773 bicyclists were killed in traffic-related accidents in the United States and 44,000 were injured.
Only one death occurred in West Virginia.
The markings and signs will be placed on streets that bicyclists might use more if they knew they could.
Each marking costs over $100 and will be placed about every 1,000 feet on proposed roads.
The markings will convey to new students that there's an alternative means of transportation.
Traffic already is a major concern in Morgantown, and WVU's enrollment continues to grow.
"It's putting a Band-aid on a much larger wound," Nutt said of the markings. "The problem is half the people are still going to ride on the sidewalks and doing it because of traffic."
"They will bring attention to everyone," said Chip Wamsley, owner of Wamsley Cycles. "There are a lot of people out there that don't believe bikes are vehicles."
Some roads to be marked are University Avenue, Patteson Drive, Van Voorhis Road, High Street, Spruce Street, Stewart Street, Willey Street and Beechurst Avenue.
