Oh boy, no wonder kids these days are growing up strange...

As someone who has been riding and smoking for over 40 years...and just quit smoking a month or so ago, all I can say is God only knows why folks like you are not blessed with the same intelligence and good manners as the rest of us.

I ride on the road, but sometimes it makes more sense for me to get on the sidewalk for a block max. I work on a one way street. I am not going around the block 3 blocks..to get to my office...when I can just ride up half the block on the side walk.

I have to make a left on a major street in order to get to my house and than hold up traffic making a left into my drive way. When I can easily make the left onto the side walk and ride up the street a few houses to land right in front of my house.

I have a bike. It is suppose to be convenient...I can do things cars can't do...and will continue to use all these benefits to the max.

No, actually you don't need to justify your life choices to some wacko on an internet forum. When you decide you want to quit, you will...and if you don't that's cool too.

Same goes for folks that want to ride on the sidewalks...you do what you feel comfortable with and don't let a bunch of wannabe 'serious cyclists' on the Internet run your life. When you are ready for the road, you'll migrate to it naturally, like many of us did as kids. Many of the people in these forums only rediscovered cycling when they hit middle age, got too fat, or got tired of gas prices....and like reformed smokers they tend to get a little preachy and tight-arsed.

When I ride home in the evening rush hour, I hit a few sidewalks in the high traffic areas for a very short part of my ride. I don't like it, and I feel kind of stupid doing it, but I don't feel safe with all the lunatics out there.

I try not to, but my commute takes me through parts where it's the only "sane" choice - places where there are cars parked in what normally would be the "bike lane." On my best day, I'm not fast enough to try to weave in an out between parked cars on a three-lane main drag. Luckily 95% of the route is on MUP. Only real prob I have with sidewalk is that it's just more wear and tear on the bike with the unevenness.

What irks me, since this is a thread where we're apparently venting - is to see lovely, well-groomed, smooth, asphalt MUP being unused, and then see a cyclist out in the road with traffic. Huge green signs every block labeling the MUP as a Bike Route, but you'd choose to ride in the gravel-edge and dare people to get close to you? That's about as commonsensical as riding on sidewalk exclusively IMHO.

As long as you're aware of your surroundings and watching ahead and behind you, not taking out pedestrians or playing chicken with cars in driveways - there's no reason you can't or shouldn't ride on the sidewalk if it suits your comfort level.

Regarding #3: In Seattle it is legal to ride on the sidewalk.

Section 11.44.120 RIDING ON A SIDEWALK OR PUBLIC PATH. Every person operating a bicycle upon any sidewalk or public path shall operate the same in a careful and prudent manner and a rate of speed no greater than is reasonable and proper under the conditions existing at the point of operation, taking into account the amount and character of pedestrian traffic, grade and width of sidewalk or public path, and condition of surface, and shall obey all traffic control devices. Every person operating a bicycle upon a sidewalk or public path shall yield the right-of-way to any pedestrian thereon, and shall give an audible signal before overtaking and passing any pedestrian.

https://www.seattle.gov/transportation/bikecode.htm

Regarding #4: Very mature.

There is a section on one of my commuting routes where the choice is between entering (from the east side at a stop sign) a northbound 5 lane (2 x 2 + turn), cross two lanes of northbound rush hour 30 mph traffic to get to the west turn lane in less than a half a block, or ride 1/4 block in parking lot and 1/4 block on a sidewalk to get to a pedestrian crossing, which puts the crosser on the south side of an east west 5 lane 2x2 plus turn, on a sidewalk. I opt for the sidewalk for my own safety and well being, not to mention the psycho cager, rush hour, nutbags with sun in their eyes, not paying the least bit of attention to the bike sitting in the middle of this intersection. Once across the intersection and to the next curb cutout, its possible to cross to the westbound side of the street and continue on the road. There is really no other choice as the next stoplight to the south of this intersection is an interstate highway on/off ramp and the next light to the north is the busiest street in the state.

As has already been stated, its usually best to mind your own business, especially when you have no clue why someone may be utilizing the sidewalk.

I thought you had been even more curmudgeonly than usual, and now I know why. I quit 6 years ago and I'm still a curmudgeon. But I do feel better since I quit, and you'll feel better also in the not-too-distant future.

You may already realize this, but if you're riding on the road, you shouldn't be weaving in and out between parked cars - if there's not room to share the lane and stay out of the door zone, then take the lane or find another route. Maybe that's the sidewalk - IMHO that's a judgment call for you to make, not for some random person on an online forum.

That said, there are a lot of reasons why cyclists might choose the shoulder over the MUP. For instance, in Albuquerque there's a MUP that parallels a 50 mph main thoroughfare - 2 lanes each direction, lots of traffic, and very few side streets (none without stoplights). It's not quite a limited-access highway, but it's close. Unfortunately, the MUP is built such that it crosses all the cross streets at crosswalks. It's too easy when you're cruising along at 20+ MPH to head into the crosswalk on a green light and walk signal, only to get right hooked (or left hooked) by a driver turning off the main road, or right crossed by somebody turning onto the main road from the cross street. Furthermore, it's hard to go cruising down the MUP at 20+ MPH anyway - there are lots of joggers and slower cyclists there, many of whom are wearing headphones or otherwise oblivious to the possibility of faster traffic. It's much safer to ride the shoulder of the road, where you're where other drivers are looking for traffic (not that that's a guarantee that you'll be seen, of course) and where you don't have to contend with all the slower traffic on the MUP.

It probably annoys drivers who don't understand why many cyclists choose the road over the MUP. But it's my responsibility to ride safely, not to avoid annoying drivers. Sometimes it's impossible to do one without doing the other.

Tough. The road is safer, faster and goes to where I want to go...don't lay your fears of traffic and tendency to hug the gutter on me, m'kay? I support the right of folks to ride on the sidewalk, MUP, road, etc., which also means I don't support people trying to tell me or anyone else where we should ride.

I already feel better when I am climbing or trying to keep up with young, skinny roadies.
But there are still times when a smoke would feel oh so good!

I ride on the sidewalk all the time. The OP is probably one of those riders who zips through the middle lane of cars just so he can get in front at a red light. Then he zigzags in the crosswalk waiting for the light to turn green.

You know what I call these riders? Targets.

I figure a good rider rides in the place that is most appropriate for him/her/ his bike/ and other people in every given situation. Sometimes that's the road, sometimes the sidewalk. Depends on a lot of factors.

Well said...ride where you feel safe. And congrats on your attempt to quit smoking.

no thanks.
If all cyclists were on the road it'd be a glorious thing.

Maybe if you jackwads got tickets you'd stop.

It does affect me. The more people ride on sidewalks the more motorists think it's ok to crowd us off the road. Comparing a roadies speed fetish to something dangerous and ignorant is apples and oranges.

Weren't no attempt to it, just did it, cold turkey. I haven't had a smoke since the beginning of May.
Spent 60 bucks on Commit and didn't even use it. Trying to keep up with young skinny roadies on group rides and in races is better than any drug.

The vc forum is down the hall, to the left, hidden away in A&S.
Heil Forester!

Or you could use google and switch up your route a bit.
Your commute is only as good as you plan it out to be.

So... the newbie commuter is telling bmclaughlin how to plan routes? lol
ugh
I use sidewalks as I feel it is warranted.

You sir obviously have cyclist inferiority phobias...do you want to be healed?
Heal thy self by reading from Effective Cycling and praising the one true god of cycling, the Forester!

or...just ride your bike and ignore the rantings of vc zealots.

lol

ew... vc zealots rank somewhere around scientologists for me.

My philosophy boils down to this: "I do what is best for me."

Incidentally, my use of sidewalks is maybe 1% of the time but I would never say never. Bikes are wonderfully flexible and I like taking advantage of that.

Only a noob or a zealot would ride by some rigid dogma and not take advantage of the unique attributes of a bicycle in some situations.

They will be the fools stuck in a 3 mile long traffic jam that takes 45 min to clear out. While the rest of us would spend 10 minutes on a sidewalk detouring around it. lol