It must be different in other parts of the country. In my area cars never come on the sidewalks unless it's a car crash. Maybe a drunk driving off the road. They have to jump the curb to reach the sidewalk. It is safer for me as a lone rider to ride the sidewalk. The road is smoother so that is why a lot of riders ride the road, but I like the sidewalk when I have my 40mm tires.

40 years ago all my friends and I were young and stupid. Now half of them are dead, and I'm still stupid. I think? I'm ahead of the game...

Yes, apparently it is different since everywhere that I've lived cars drive across the sidewalk quite frequently - whenever the driver wants to go up a driveway to park, or enter a business parking lot, gas station, etc. It's also common for those who are walking (or riding a bike) on a sidewalk to have to cross a road unless they plan to just endlessly circle the same block. Nor is it that uncommon for drivers to inadvertently go up on a sidewalk - if drivers were all perfectly in control of their vehicles we wouldn't have this discussion of relative safety. Locally the last few bicycle fatalities of which I'm aware were all either on a city sidewalk or on the shoulder of a road without sidewalks.

I have a nearly total belief that I should not ride on sidewalks, but I have two places I ride frequently where I nearly always do. On is in Belmont, MA where there is a particular five way intersection where taking a left turn legally feels like a suicide mission. I will ride a half block or so on the sidewalk in order to cross over the street without having to worry about being hit from a rather difficult to observe third direction of traffic. The second is on a two span bridge between Hudson, NH and Nashua. The correct right-hand span requires me to go several blocks out of my way and, more importantly, cross a busy lane of traffic to get to a left merge lane on the bridge. Going out of my way to take the more dangerous way across is really not an appealing choice.
in both of these places, driveways do not cross the sidewalk, and pedestrian traffic is light to nonexistent.

If there are driveways crossing the sidewalk, and you really must ride there, do so slowly. Odds are you're going to see the car before the driver sees you. A lot of these accidents are actually the bike running into the unexpected car.

Not usually a good idea.


It's illegal in many places, but can be dangerous everywhere.


Or are you talking about MUPs? Where I live, there's a bicycle rental place at one end of a relatively long MUP. They may recommend staying on the MUP as part of the rental agreement.

I'll add the depends asked for earlier...

I live in a medium sized town that was basically laid out between 1880 and 1950 and swelled to stupid to accomodate the Interstate Highway System and over the years the roads were expanded on the main routes from two to five with a turn refuge, something that ate valuable frontage in places and actually hindered businesses. Then a bypass came in on the edge of town to keep truck traffic out of the main and heavy auto traffic.

Bike lanes are not common and the roads are very tight downtown. There is still no bike lane from the main intersection at the railroad underpass all the way to the interstate interchange, which is next to a truck stop...there IS one all the way down N. Oregon St to within 3 blocks of my place. Traffic flow is akin to a city of over 3X our population (11,000+ at last count). That interchange is where most of the industrial business and lodging are at, Home Depot, Walmart, restaurants and other supposed tourist traps that, in the case of food and retail are used more by locals.

But we invented and make tater tots and also onion rings, and Warren Buffet is happy about that.

You ride wherever you have to and make do, and watch out for your fellow residents like you should. it's still dead down near the underpass like that because our city government decided to cram all this stuff on the east side of town and almost killed the main business district (they fought and survived though).

But it's really hard to cross a street without a crossing light. In fact a few of the non-traffic light based manually triggered crossing lights were installed across town (and completely confused people for a while). One of these is near my place and the other, fittingly? is at the hospital.

If there is no snow you are almost free and clear to travel on the sidewalk from the mall to the end of town due to so little use, unless it really snows and then they make mountains that force even wheelchair users onto the icy street in the way of traffic. Brilliant!

Strange Initial Question
 

wasn't it? OP is at the beach, and he rents bikes. The proprietor warns to stay on the sidewalk because...why? He care about people? He doesn't want the insurance claim hassle? He's bossy?

Who cares? At the beach, ride wherever you feel safest. Try to be a good citizen. Don't damage the property of others. It's the beach, so have fun. Aren't these all anyone needs to know?