Sidewalks are NOT the safest place to ride much to your disappointment and disbelief, in fact it's the most dangerous place to ride unless you're a small child. First you have to deal with pedestrians that are able to all sorts of unexpected things and their not expecting a faster object nor looking for them; you have old folks who can't hear or walk well, wheelchairs, people with baby strollers, pets, and children; then you have to deal with crosswalks; then you have deal with driveways where motorists are zipping in and out of and not looking for nor expecting a 15 mph plus object to suddenly be where it wasn't and smacko the motorist won't have time to stop from hitting you. You are at a greater chance of being hit by a car on a sidewalk then the street and this is common knowledge.

The only time I ever use a sidewalk is where it is a designated bike path and then I very careful and ride slowly; or if traffic is too busy and I need to make my way across an intersection to turn left I will pull over the side of a road, dismount the bike and use the crosswalks to get to the other side so I can continue on the street. One the things I hated about riding a bike in California along the coast in places like Santa Barbara was that the bike path, which was designated a bike path, instead became a pedestrian path at which point it was too dangerous to ride on due to the crowds so onto the street I went.