Jagoe street reopens with sharrows, wider sidewalk

The freshly resurfaced Jagoe St block between Oak and Scripture reopened with new sharrows, bike signs, and a widened sidewalk. City engineer Noreen Housewright explained that road was narrowed to fit a 5’ sidewalk while keeping parking on both sides, and sharrows and “Bikes May Use Full Lane” signs were added. Sharrows encourage riding outside of the car door zone, riding the right direction, and they signal to cars that “bikes belong here.” Anyone that’s ridden this road with car traffic can attest to the friction and confusion, if not outright driver impatience when people ride safely outside the door zone. As our first taste of what’s to come from the Bike Plan, Jagoe got these improvements from the proposed “shared roadway” designation in the plan appendix.

Jagoe improvements add to last year’s sharrow installation through the UNT campus and extend it northward, an eventual bike route to UNT’s Discovery Park campus and north Denton.

In the below photo, taken from the Mr. Chopsticks patio, you might remember that the previous sidewalk disappeared into the parking lot. All along the street, you can see the narrowed curb width and fresh sod where yards were extended. The sidewalk improvement is a big deal, since it was previously hard to navigate on foot and even less convenient in a wheelchair.