Originally Posted by Brian Ratliff
This is not an apples to apples comparison which can arrive at a risk ratio. He simply applied his on-road cycling parameters to the sidepath environment and found that they don't work (which is no real surprise). This is all the test shows.
And that's all it was intended to show, and all he ever claimed it showed.
The point is that forcing cyclists to ride on such facilities is unfair, because it requires riding considerably slower than they normally ride on the road. Of course it's no real surprise to the members of this forum, but to the non-cyclist city council members of Palo Alto, for whom the test was conducted (if memory serves), it was something they probably never even considered.