It also really matters whether you are urban, suburban, or rural. In an urban setting the street probably makes the most sense. In suburbia (at least where I live), along busy roads that are main arteries, nobody walks anywhere and the sidewalks are almost always empty. If somebody chooses to use a sidewalk to ride on they should consider themselves like a pedestrian. If I ever do this, I stop everywhere a pedestrian would stop and always use crosswalks to cross the street. I don't bolt down a sidewalk at 20mph and blaze across intersections.