Pittsburgh officials aim to add bike lanes or shared-lane markings to as many as 10 streets by February, starting with lines painted on Penn Avenue in the Strip District this week.

Public Works crews were painting "sharrows" -- shared-lane arrows with the outline of a bike -- in the right lane of Penn Avenue between 32nd and 16th streets, said Stephen Patchan, the city's bicycle and pedestrian coordinator.

Crews on Friday morning reached 26th Street, but when the work is complete, cyclists will be able to follow lanes almost entirely from Liberty Avenue at Baum Boulevard in Shadyside to the edge of Downtown through the Strip, with only three blocks of unmarked lanes in Lawrenceville.

"It adds a little structure to that share-the-road message," Patchan said. "Cyclists tend to bike with more confidence and stay in their lane, and motorists can still pass with the left lane."

Drivers should yield to cyclists in the shared lane, and cyclists should ride through the center of the arrows to avoid the "door zone" where they can be hit by doors opening on parked cars, he said.

Mayor Luke Ravenstahl wants the city to earn a "bike friendly" rating from the Washington-based League of American Bicyclists by 2010 and plans to apply for the designation in February, Patchan said.

"It's a very prestigious ranking to have," said Joanna Doven, Ravenstahl's spokeswoman. The goal is to create safer, bike-friendly connections between neighborhoods, parks and the city's riverfront trails, while continuing to "green" the city, according to the mayor's office.

So far, the city has about 14.5 miles of bike lanes or shared lanes, Patchan said.

Bike Pittsburgh Executive Director Scott Bricker said the city will work to repaint the Liberty Avenue bike lane in Bloomfield, where existing markings have faded. It plans to clarify what he called a "no-man's land" between the Bloomfield Bridge and 40th Street, where the markings are faded or were swallowed up by turn lanes.

Bike Pittsburgh will donate 100 "Three Rivers" bike racks to the city for installation in business districts like East Carson Street in the South Side and Liberty Avenue in Bloomfield, and has partnered with Public Works to plan bike lanes or sharrows on other streets.

Other roads that might get bike markings include Beechwood Boulevard and Hobart Street between Greenfield Road and Beacon Street -- all in Squirrel Hill, North Highland Avenue between East Liberty Boulevard and Highland Park, and Forbes Avenue through Squirrel Hill, Bricker said.

"That's the crux of the work we do," he said. "We work to make our city safer for cyclists, and the more physical infrastructure we put in place, the more bike racks we put into place, the closer we get."