Originally Posted by
Engineer
I ride on the street, sidewalks, alleys, bike trails, driveways, parkways and dirt trails, across grass and gravel, through parking lots and small bodies of water on occasion, whatever makes the most sense at the time. While I probably ride 98% of the time on the street or bike path, sometimes the safest (or convenient) way is to take a detour off the street. If you are not getting in anyone's way, I don't see what the problem is. My commute goes through industrial areas and past cemeteries where there are almost no people on the sidewalks and very little chance of cars pulling out of driveways. If I do resort to a sidewalk with people on it I will slow down to walking speed, but usually stay on the bike.
Yup. I commute on a drop bar MTB with 1.75 Panaracer Tservs on it. It can go just about anywhere and does. At one point on my commute, I have the choice of riding on the shoulder on a long steep uphill grade, into the setting sun, with traffic whizzing by me at 50-70 mph. Nothing between me and a texting teenager but a white line. Or, I can cross the road at the light and ride up the sidewalk, protected from oncoming traffic by a double guard rail. Pedestrians are few and far between. It took me all of 10 seconds to decide what to do when I first rode the route. Farther up the hill, I make a left turn into a parking lot (the business is closed by this hour), ride through to the end, cross a grassy stretch into a cul-de-sac, ride down the street, cross another grassy area into the back end of another parking lot, ride out to an intersection and turn left onto the bike path leading to home. And so it goes. Once you ride some single track, the definition of a navigable path becomes somewhat plastic.