Did a quick google search. It is much more dangerous to ride on sidewalk than on the road. Surprising me was the inference from the data that as a bike comes out of a sidewalk in an intersection crossing, that is not where a car is looking to see a bike. It apparently even matters if you are riding in the direction of traffic or against traffic on the sidewalk.

This study shows that riding on the sidewalk vs roadway is 1.8x more dangerous.

"Bicyclists on a sidewalk or bicycle path incur greater risk than those on the roadway (on aver age 1.8 times as great), most likely because of blind conflicts at intersections. Wrong-way sidewalk bicyclists are at even greater risk, and sidewalk bicycling appears to increase the inci dence of wrong-way travel."

This study also shows the same thing. The relative danger index of riding on the sidewalk is 16.34 compared to less than one for roads. In fact, this study shows that it is 24.8 times more dangerous on a sidewalk than it is on a major road without biking facilities (bike lanes etc..).

"The evidence that bicycling on sidewalks and similar facilities is more hazardous than bicycling on streets is overwhelming."

Thanks for providing the impetus to look this up. Backs up my experience, I guess. You may feel "1000%" safer, but the truth is quite different.

J.