i just took a little google streetview tour down route 5 in colonie
i fully expected to find pictures of little old ladies and children
riding happily on the road
while one grumpy jeweler inched through the pedestrians on the sidewalk
my true observations
the road seems plenty wide in places
but fairly narrow in others
any heavy trucks on the road seemd scarily close to the curb
note correct use of word curb
i did not see a single bicycle
on the road or sidewalk
i saw exactly two pedestrians
and they were walking together
the other road that goes north to south through colonie
is sand creek road
and it is almost definitely worse
there are literally no other surface streets running north south through colonie
not one
also
the stop lights are very widely spaced out
meaning the cars get a chance to get up to a decent speed
if they were every two blocks
then you could have much higher traffic volume
and still feel relatively safe to ride
like in a big city
it definitely wasnt the worst street for riding i have seen
i have ridden on worse
and if i were passing through colonie
i would probably stay on the road
but i certainly dont blame the op for riding on the sidewalk there