Originally Posted by
gnappi
I'll not correct you, but give anecdotal support for where I live and ride the sidewalks.
A L-O-T of riders ride on sidewalks at all hours of the day and night here in So. Flo. I meet a half dozen or more daily and "generally" see none to very few riding in the street, and have never ever read of a bicyclist being killed riding on the sidewalk. Peds seem to be very hip to bike riders, a simple "on your left (or right as it happens)" before passing them invariably gets them to hug the far side of the sidewalk.
In the street the vehicle is likely to be going at or near the speed limit, say 25 to 45 mph and from a parking lot what MAYBE 5 mph? I'll take those numbers in a heartbeat as a matter of fact I have for the last 30 odd years.
Turning into a driveway often occurs at faster than 5 mph, but there's no question that riders on sidewalks are disproportionately injured by driveway crashes. Where the high fatality rates come in is at the intersections, riding off the sidewalk into the intersection is far more dangerous than maintaining a consistent and high visibility position on the road.
I don't know what is cause or effect here, but Florida is generally the state with the highest fatality rates for bicyclists, and also has laws that pretty much encourage sidewalk riding. I'm not going to pretend I know better than someone who actually has to navigate such a place how to do it. If it works for you there, fine. In most states, an adult riding on the sidewalk is fairly unusual and the drivers are definitely not looking for them.