Advocacy & Safety - Whats the rule with riding on sidewalks?

I am a bit of a newb to bike riding.

But is riding on the sidewalks legal or illegal? Is there an unwritten law for bikers here?

I plan on bringing my new bike downtown to my dorm room and im not totally sure of the rules around here in Milwaukee.

Thanks.

I was able to find out the laws of my community by looking at the town's website - there's usually a link so you can read the municiple codes. That will tell you for sure.

Where I live, riding on the sidewalk downtown is illegal but you can on the sidewalks everywhere else.

Of course, you might want to consider just riding on the road - it's safer than the sidewalk, believe it or not.

Be safe :)

Laws vary from state to state and city to city. Do a little googling, you should be able to find them. There is a huge debate over the wisdom of sidewalk cycling, but the mods have confined that debate to this thread (http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=100823) (feel free to add your two cents). Be warned, we get into that argument here, they might close this thread.

My experiences here in Milwaukee over the past 30 years is that if I ride at a responsible speed (usually walking speed or slower) and don't bump into people, no one will care. If I get asked to not ride on the sidewalk by a store owner, or if on private property , then I walk, or get into the street. I recently stopped by at the South Shore Yacht Club to see if a friend was there and was asked to walk (I was going s-l-o-w at the time), I said "Sure, no problem" and he was happy, and let me poke around looking for my friend.

So the rule? Safety first. Enjoy.

John Wilke
Milwaukee

I think most here would agree that the main safety issue with sidewalk riding for the cyclist (apart from the potential for mowing down pedestrians) is negotiating intersections. You are doing so in a place where only pedestrians are expected, yet you are (presumably) riding at bike speed, which makes it harder for motorists to notice you. Even if a right-turning motorist scans the sidewalk to his right before he turns, he probably doesn't look back very far, because people don't walk very fast. So he doesn't see you coming further back, and doesn't bother to look again just before turning, and WHAM! Similar for on-coming motorist turning left through the sidewalk.

In general, the "vehicular cycling" school of riding states that the two most important qualities for a cyclist to possess in traffic are visibility and predictability. Sidewalk riding possesses neither of these qualities with regard to the vehicular traffic flow, and therefore should be done, if at all, only with extreme caution and at a slow rate of speed. (Some, however, will say "not at all".)

Personally, I agree with John Wilke that sidewalk riding is probably permissible if it is at walking speed or less, and, I would add, if you get off the bike and walk it through intersections. For example, this is how I ride with my children, who are as yet too young (5 and 7) to ride in traffic. However, I almost never ride on sidewalks when alone, except in special cases for very short distances. Who would want to ride a long distance under these conditions? :(

Here is a link to the Milwaukee code of ordinances relating to bicycles and snowmobiles.

http://cc.milwaukee.gov:81/isysnative/RTpcQ09ERVxWb2x1bWUxXENIMTAyLnBkZg==/CH102.pdf#xml=http://199.196.84.35:81/isysquery/irl5b9c/1/hilite


I do ride on some sidewalks for short distances in my daily commute, mostly due to traffic reasons. I can count on one hand the pedestrians I have encountered. For example tonite I road the sidewalk near Miller Park from National to Greenfield at rush hour and a Cubs game tonite. I encountered one BMX kid also on the sidewalk and one guy with a dog. I most often ride the sidewalk with my 6YO on the tag along until we can get to the trail or side streets. I mostly ride the South, West, and NW sides - very few pedestrians and some pretty busy streets. I wouldn't recommend riding the sidewalks on the East side or downtown, anywhere there is alot of ped. traffic

i never really understood sidewalk riding.
if there is really that much traffic, i just take the lane. i also try and keep to streets where i'm not too much slower than traffic; i.e. i'm going 20-25 and they're going 35.

i'm especially confused by people i see repeatedly riding on the sidewalk with their helmet on. it seems they ride on the sidewalk because they think it's safer (it's not) but they still wear a helmet. i'd hate to see what they'd wear if they rode in the street.

the only time i ride on the sidewalk is going the wrong way down one way streets, and that only for distances less than a block.

It's up to state and city laws. Colorado/California are simple:
sidewalk -- pedestrian rules
roads -- motor vehicles rules

Some cities/states have different rules. Some think of bikes only as toys and are starting to restrict bikes to only paths or bike lanes.

Here in Ottawa there is always some debate over sidewalk use. Pedestrians will yell at you to get off thier sidewalk and drivers yell at you to get off their road. Here we have many recreational paths that cut through parks and between homes but even then the city has no hard and fast rule. They basicaly state that a concrete walkway along side of a road is a sidewalk and is intended for pedestrians only. The clearly marked paths that have a yellow divider line with small stop and yeld signs are ment for cyclists and pedestrians. The remainder of the pathways, being the majority of pathways, have no markings and are what the city calls exemptions to the rules. My kids always want to ride the sidewalk because they think it is safer but from my experiance is that it is far more dangerous. I always encouraged them to join me on the road or ride with care on any recreational pathway. The one law that is recognized is you must walk your bike if you are within a pedesrian crosswalk at an intersection or ride with traffic. Basicaly, don't be an idiot on any pathway and you will not be "pulled over" by the law.

In my community, sidewalk riding is not recommended because of the increased risk of an accident that it creates. (If you review the statistics though, the accidents are mostly created when the rider re-enters the street from the sidewalk.) It is allowed though, as long as the rider is not riding recklessly and avoids pedestrians. Sidewalk riding is specifically prohibited in the downtown area though, and cyclists are frequently cited for $200 fines.

On a 17 mile commute, I do maybe 200 feet of sidewalk riding when they are the better choice to get around a couple of congested intersections. Otherwise, they have proven to be a lot more dangerous in my experience because nobody in my area is typically expecting a bicycle to be using them.