So I'm riding home last night through 4 to 6 inches of snow on my emergency route (that includes sidewalks, trails, and only one miles of road) and I slip and crash into the back end of a truck. My bar end hits the truck first and snaps an inch off my handle bar. Oddly enough the truck I hit was parked............

(Wait for it........)

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. Of all places ON THE SIDEWALK!!! huh?

Rule number 1 Wear a helmet
Rule number 2 Watch where you are going
Rule number 3 Never ride on the sidewalk.......
Rule number 4 If you hit a parked truck and no one is hurt and no one saw you pedal like hell.

It's not that strange that someone would park on a sidewalk. People do it when they are moving furniture or building supplies. Sometimes people do it if they just need a temporary place to get off the road. That guy might have done it so the truck didn't get buried by the plows. I'd blame the accident more on the weather than where the guy was parked.

And sometimes you have to ride on the sidewalk for a bit - nothing wrong with it, just be careful. But yes, if no one saw, pedal like hell.

I have to ask - how in the hell do you not see a truck parked on the sidewalk?

Oh, I saw the truck .... it's just the sidewalk is wicked off camber right where the truck was parked and in the fresh snow my front wheel washed out. The sidewalk is in front of an abandoned storefront and I guess the truck belongs to the abandoned shop owner. It's always parked there .... I just don’t normally ride on the side walk. Plus I was riding my Specialized M2 so the whole situation "just sucked".

I park on the sidewalk all the time.

...

After all, that's where the bike posts are. And yes, I did see cyclists run into those.

I park my bike in the dining room at home, and in my cube at work.
I park my Jeep in the spot closest to my neighbour's apartment and I leave it there all week. (Mostly I park in that spot just to annoy my next door neighbour who gets mad when he has to walk an extra 2 or 3 parking spots to get to his car every day. Yeah, I'm an a-hole like that; but he started it by parking in the handicapped spot to use it as a loading zone, and then telling my g/f (who has an HC tag) to park in an open spot way across the lot when she told him to move his car.)

I don't usually park on any sidewalks (although I did partially, for loading purposes when I was moving out of my old apartment.) My personal favourite parking job, and I wish I took pictures of it, was when I went out 4-wheeling in the snow with my friends from the local off-roading club. Plows had piled snow up in the parking lane about 3 or 4 feet high in front of the joint we were going to for lunch. We all drove up on top of the snow heap and parked there. We even dug out the parking meters and fed them so it was as close to legal as we could get.

I park my car in the driveway, next to the curb or in a parking spot. I park my bike in my office or in my house.

I've only hit a parked car once in my life. I was riding my BMX bike when I was about 8 and not paying attention and ran square into the back of a car. Fully expecting to fall, I closed my eyes but opened them when I stopped but didn't fall. I had wedged my front tire under the bumper I was unhurt but not strong enough to pull my bike out. Luckily only my dad saw it happen.

My 5 yr old would rail against this one contractor who would block the sidewalk on his way to school (van longer than the driveway of the house he was working on). He bikes on training wheels so hopping off the curb mid-block is not really feasible for him. Fortunately, I guess, when they're running in and out of the house during the school rush they're not listening for the voice of a kindergartener old scolding them. I'm actually trying to get him to commute in the street rather than on the sidewalk but that's got another set of obstacles.

i park by the dumpster.

oh, you meant your car. i dont have one