[dejb]

> Further, more injuries occur to cyclists on sidewalks than on roads.

What type of injuries though? And is this in any way biased by the fact the young or inexperienced riders are more likely to be using the sidewalk. On the sidewalk you'd expect inexperienced riders who do not cover much distance to be having a lot of small scale accidents. On the road you'd expect experienced riders who cover a lot of distance to be having fewer accidents (per mile, hour, rider?) but are significantly more serious on average.

I'd personally want to see more evidence before overriding my natural instincts that many busy roads are often just not worth it. As much as I admire those 'road warriors' who are educating drivers this is one of those situations where I have to put me first.

[pyre]

It also depends on your speed on the sidewalk. The faster that you speed down the sidewalk, the more risk you put yourself at of running into people pulling out of drives (or making turns on the road when you speed out into the crosswalk) just because they are not used to something that fast being on the sidewalk (you don't see people walking at the same speed that you can be zipping around on your bike).