AdelaaR

My advice: to hell with the law and what can or cannot be done ... those lawmakers are with the mayority and the mayority are crazy selfish cardrivers.
Use common sense and use whatever means necessary to be as safe as possible. (ASAP)
Sometimes being ASAP can mean riding in the middle of the road, hindering cars, sometimes it means hopping on the sidewalk or doing all kinds of other crazy stuff.
The point is this: I have been doing this stuff all my life and I have never paid even one fine for it

shadoman

EPL's are great for testing any new equipment, and learning how to maneuver quickly.

Sunday morning is the only time I've ever been cursed at, presumably by someone who was late for church...

merlinextraligh

In the vast majority of circumstances, its a bad idea to ride on the side walk. However, there are times in the real world that it may make sense. For example, when I come back into my neighborhood I have a choice, either:

a) make a left turn across a six lane road, then make another left turn across another 6 lane road less than a block later,

b) ride less than a block on the side walk, which rarely has anyone walking on it.

Riding slowly on the sidewalk, watching for cars, and pedestrians, with a healthy understanding that no one is expecting you to come from where you are coming is a far superior option to option "a".

If you want to be pendantic, the best legal answer would be to walk the block. However, done with a little common sense, any physical or legal risk from riding that block would truly be deminimis.

AdelaaR

I use the sidewalk all the time to skip traffic lights when turning right.
It's not my fault it's just a stupid idea to make cyclists stop for lights when they want to turn right and not be hindered by or hinder anyone in doing so ... especially when there is a seperate cycling lane on the street I turn onto.
On the sidewalk the red light has no power and so it isn't technically ignoring the red light ... they could fine me for riding the sidewalk but they never do.
I think that as long as the police doesn't see you doing something dangerous or hindering others they mind their own business.

Seattle Forrest

There's a situation like that where I take the sidewalk up a steep and busy hill. It's important to point out that there are no driveways breaking up the sidewalk I take on this ride - otherwise I would have found a different route.

wcHHMiB6

I would definitely try and use the sidewalks when you can as it's much safer than the road. I don't get people that ride within inches of 2 ton vehicles with nothing for protection save a helmet.

I mean, think about it, people are texting, talking on the phone, and very distracted driving, MUCH more so now than ever before, and would you rather be a few inches away from the potentially killing you or at least on a sidewalk where you have the curb as a little protection? I will take the sidewalk every time and regardless of what people say, it's MUCH safer.

johnj2803

To the OP: This LINK and THIS helped me a bit:

caloso

I'm sure you'll continue to say that until you're hit by a car pulling out of a driveway.

wcHHMiB6

I would much rather take my chances with something like that which is easy to avoid, especially if you are careful, compared to being way more vulnerable every single second I am on the road, inches away from cars and trucks with absolutely no barrier like a curb to protect me. I'll take the sidewalk every single time.

caloso

Buena suerte.

coldehammer

People in my neighborhood are texting, talking on the phone, eating, listening to music with headphones on, walking their dogs - ALL on the sidewalk. Not at all that much safer.

banerjek

I'm going to guess you haven't ridden much.

I've met many cyclists over the years and a lot of them do pretty crazy things. Here's an interesting statistic: I have never encountered a cycling advocacy group or even a single experienced cyclist who advocates riding on the sidewalk or who thinks it's safer. On the other hand, this sentiment is common among people who don't ride at all and with beginners.

One could logically conclude that all the experienced people, bicycle advocacy groups, and public entities that print literature on where it's safe to ride can't figure out what's obvious to neophytes (a category that would have included aforementioned experienced people at some time). Or maybe they have figured out something and that the laws prohibiting riding on the sidewalk are possibly there to improve safety.

Nachoman

street. or find a different route.

wcHHMiB6

I ride quite a bit but not on the street. I don't need an advocacy group or someone else to tell me that riding next to 2 ton vehicles is or is not dangerous...it's very dangerous, especially these days with cell phones, text, internet on phones, etc. Sidewalk riding is dangerous too but at least you have a curb as a buffer from the cars on the street.

tagaproject6

And who is protecting the pedestrians from you?

Mr 53x11

No, take a different route if you feel you need to be on a side walk.

wcHHMiB6

I don't ride where there are many people on the sidewalks because I realize that it would not be safe of fun. If I am on a sidewalk there are little if any people around. Other than that, I ride bike trails.

merlinextraligh

The problem is you don't understand where the danger is coming from. The vast majority of collisions involving cars and bikes occur at intersections.

A very small percentage involve cars traveling the same direction as the bike.

Thus, while it's possible that riding on the sidewalk would reduce the risk of being hit from behind, it greatly increases the risk of being hit at an intersection (because you're not where the cars expect you, you're coming the wrong direction, your visibility is worse etc.)

So on balance, minor reduction of a small risk (rear end) with major increase of a big risk (intersection collision) makes your risk much higher on the sidewalk.

Don't let your irrational fears lead you a bad conclusion. Rather, look at the statistics for yourself, and listen to the combined wisdom of people who have ridden a lot more than you, and bicycle safety advocates who have given it a lot more thought and research.

tagaproject6

But...but...it is far easier to convince a blind man to see than for someone pretending to be blind.

banerjek

This.

When you ride on the sidewalk, every intersection, driveway, alley, and parking lot is dangerous because cars will not expect you. They'll turn right on you if they're going the same direction as you and left on you if they're going the opposite. Cars that are worried about catching that gap when pulling out of parking lots and driveways won't see or expect you. Cars not wanting to block traffic and that are looking at their final destination that are turning into these places will not expect or see you.

Unless you are willing to slow to a walking speed at every intersection, driveway, parking lot, etc, riding on the sidewalk is suicidal.

You are safest when you are where you can be seen and you are moving the way people expect you to move.

Look up some statistics. You won't find any that support the idea that you're generally safer on the sidewalk.

Vicelord

There are a few reasons I don't ride on sidewalks, but they aren't anything which hasn't been mentioned already.

1. try to ride 20mph on a city sidewalk dodging light poles, hydrants, curb cutouts, and listening to the budumpa bumps when you go over the cracks in the concrete.
2. pedestrians and dummies on bicycles riding the wrong way.
3. cars are never looking on the sidewalk for pedestrians or bicycles. They are simply looking in the road for other cars, and if you're in the road, I feel you are actually safer and more likely to be seen.
4. in most places (such as Phoenix) it's illegal to bicycle on a pedestrian right of way - sidewalk.

JohnJ80

Pls show us your data to back up what you are saying. There are a lot of studies that have been done that say the exact opposite of what you say. In point of fact, those studies show that it isn't even close as to the relative safety. It's something like 1.8x to 24x safer being on the road than on the sidewalk depending on the study.

I got lazy this weekend in a downtown setting, one way streets made it inconvenient to go where I wanted to go. So I got up on the sidewalk and *slowly* rode down the sidewalk to the corner I wanted to be at. I nearly got my clock cleaned by a vehicle coming out of a parking garage. This all when i was going slow and being especially vigilant. All the studies tell us that this is when there is the biggest danger. Great lesson for me and fortunately no one got hurt.

If you "ride quite a bit but not on the street" then that's sort of the same thing as a newbie road rider, isn't it?

I don't think what you say has any basis in fact (unless I'm missing something) so please prove it. Otherwise you are advocating a position that is dangerous.

J.

Vicelord

how do you maintain any sort of speed on the sidewalk?!

ryder0182

I have an intersection(side road crossing heavy traffic) on one of my routes that requires me to hit the button and get back in the street because the sensor doesn't trigger and there usually aren't cars going my direction. There is no way that I could get across 6 lanes of traffic without hitting the button, I don't feel like playing Frogger.

hhnngg1

Legal in LA