Like I say, when I ride on a clear and EMPTY OF ANY PEDESTRIANS/OTHER sidewalk I'm not impacting ANYBODY. There is not an issue here where I'm failing to "live in harmony" with others. The concept of harmony involves more than one entity. In the cases where I get on the "sidewalk" the only entity involved is me.

Several people here are hung up by the term "sidewalk" like the name itself dictates some invariant purpose to it. To me it's a flat slab of concrete that I can ride my bicycle on without being in the road with the cars. I refuse to let the term "walk" in the name force me into compliance with norms that go against my better judgment of appropriate behavior at that moment in time.

In my daily commute I ride several miles of busy roads out there with the cars and abstain from riding on the available sidewalks because of reasons stated on this thread that I accept as valid. But where the sidewalk is safer than the road I do ride on it. The sidewalk amounts to about 5% of my ride each day.