Originally Posted by
chephy
You need an intersection to get to the other side of the street. You can pull out of the driveway, just as a car driver, then stay near the centerline instead of going to the curb (since the intersection is so close by), and make your vehicular left turn from there as appropriate. Same things as you would do when driving or riding a motorcycle, say.
However, all that may seem a little scary to someone who's new to cycling. A sidewalk is fine if you go slow, yield to pedestrian and treat all driveways with care. I do it often for short stretches when crossing is inconvenient.
My thoughts exactly. I've been at this for about a year and I'm comfy sharing the road with cars and reading motorists. I still may use a sidewalk in this situation, at least when traffic isn't light.
I also have some stretches of one-way where I just ride half a block the wrong way on the sidewalk downtown. I stay behind or with pedestrians, stay away from building entrance/exits and pay close attention. There's no sense in riding almost 1/3 mile to get all the way around a block on the road when you can ride 400 feet on the sidewalk to your destination.
The sidewalk is a great thing for cyclists to keep in their bag of tricks, but its use should be limited. I rank it up there with taking shortcuts through grass to get between two roads that almost connect to each other (like back-to-back cul-de-sacs or a road that dead-ends)