Originally Posted by lasauge

Personally, I almost never ride on the sidewalk, with a very small number of exceptions like the couple hundred feet of sidewalk on my daily commute which cuts almost half a mile, two traffic lights, and a nasty left turn that requires merging across 3 lanes of 50mph traffic from my morning commute. When I do get on that section of sidewalk for a few seconds, I slow down to pedestrian speed, give way to anyone walking, and am extremely cautious when I return to the regular pavement.

That said, I don't mind riding on major high-speed roads because my commuting and errand running bikes are road bikes and I'm a strong enough rider that I can sustain a decent speed. I would not ride those same streets on a mountain bike or cruiser, the difference of speed between myself and the rest of the traffic would be too great for safety and convenience. When I ride a mountain bike through town I pick back streets, bike paths, unpaved areas I can cut through, and sometimes I cheat and hop the medians of major roads to shortcut across them.