Riding On The Sidewalk Could Get You Time in The Woodshed

City Statute 249a, Section Roman Numeral 5!

Riding bikes on sidewalks in a city”s downtown/core area is really not a good thing to do and is generally against the law. The video above that I hacked together from an Andy Griffith episode does a good job of showing why. I believe it”s just common courtesy to dismount and walk your bike whether there is an ordinance or not. As a rule, I (and I believe most cyclists) think it”s safer to ride the street vs the sidewalk. I was surprised to find that there are some cyclists who advocate for riding on the sidewalk. A big problem with sidewalk riders is they choose to still use vehicular traffic rules instead of pedestrian and will follow the traffic signals instead of crosswalk lights.
There are occasions where I/we do take the sidewalk though…
Our Pub Pedal rides will generally include sidewalks even in the big city”s core downtown area where it is illegal. This ride takes place on a week night when there is little to no pedestrian traffic and we ride our antique and cruiser bikes at a slow speed.
Occasionally when we ride in to the big city from home we might take the sidewalk instead of the 40mph street that it parallels. This particular sidewalk is in the suburbs with a lot of the adjacent land being fields so there is very little pedestrian traffic and few intersecting drives and streets.

As I am writing this it reminded me of some 25+ years ago, Nova, myself and our road bikes laying in a tangled mess on a downtown sidewalk in the big city right at lunch hour. And that”s all I remember. I don”t recall the circumstances that put us in the embarrassing and humiliating situation.

Many towns I”ve been to, mark the sidewalk with the ordinance.

Below is not a good example though.
I”m sure walking and parking your bike on the sidewalk is ok.

The next two are better.