1. I'm not concerned about speed, and I never pay attention to that. It's about not ending up as roadkill.
I understood that the first time you said that, really.
I'm concerned about speed, as I said, because there's a certain minimum speed below which I can't operate a bicycle -- and if I rode on the typical sidewalk around here, I'd have a hard time staying above that speed.
2. They are usually as pictured above- empty, except occasionally at one of the intersections that has a bus stop and bench. Nobody really walks in L.A.
Why do you have those nice big wide sidewalks, then?
(that thing about nobody walking may change in the coming years...be interesting to see what happens then)