It's not always easy to tell.

A fairly busy street near my condo has what look to me like identical sidewalks on each side. Legally I'm told that only one is a sidewalk and the other is designated a "trail". I don't know which is which. In actual practice it doesn't matter because nobody cares. If I ride my beater bike up the block to the convenience store I generally ride on the sidewalk going and in the street coming home so I don't have to cross the street.

You would not have died from riding into a truck perpendicular unless you went under & it drove over you.

I have gone into parked vehicles 2x, both times 1000% not paying attention and i was a certified noob. My experience tells me it is not as bad as hitting the ground, and you could probably just keep riding no problem unless a part is damaged or knocked out of place like a brake lever or something.

Also, you really should never bike on sidewalk, no matter how empty it is, how flat & level it is, or your skill level. There are wonky sidewalks around here that have spots which could break a wheel yet i see geniuses riding along on them all the time. It makes me cringe. I had a 4 speed cruiser that was stuck in first gear for 3 and a half years out of the 12 i owned it, yet somehow i managed to not need a sidewalk. Quit blaming the world for everything & take some responsibility & initiative.... :)

- Andy

thats how meg ryan died in city of angels

This thread has been almost nothing but attacks by folks like you towards the OP.

This thread has been "nothing but attacks"? You really are delusional.

Here's what the local bike safety organization has prepared for folks in my state. They even have a version in Spanish since we have a lot of low-wage service workers many of whom can be seen riding bikes to and from work in the resort corridor. The cities mentioned, Reno and Sparks are in the much less populated northern part of the state. You can see that Sparks has made it illegal to ride sidewalks anywhere in the city if you are over the age of 15.

http://bikenevada.org/wp-content/upl...Sidewalks1.pdf To quote their site (exactly what I wrote before): Drivers in cars look mainly at traffic in the street. They usually don’t look very far down any sidewalk because they only expect people moving at a slow speed because they are walking.

It might be legal. It might be expedient. It also might not be very smart.

Personal attack? I hope not. The OP began this thread with a rant against a car driver. We're all bicyclists and most of us also drive cars. It is easy to put myself in the place of the car driver. I've been there and only for the grace of God have not creamed a cyclist. He was riding fast, riding against the flow of traffic, and riding on the sidewalk in a commercial area. I was trying to cope with heavy traffic and safely enter the main road at a T intersection. By the time I had checked the sidewalk for pedestrians and checked traffic coming from the left, he was almost in my line of sight. It was only because I looked to the right once again that I saw him leave the curb and cross right in front of me. Had I hit him, it surely would have ruined both of our days.

Legal or not....riding on a sidewalk at any speed faster than a pedestrian walks is dangerous to the cyclist and to other people.