Quote Originally Posted by Deborajen View Post
In my hometown, it's legal to ride a bike on the sidewalks except in the downtown business district. We also have a "bike path" system (it's not the best), and some of that system is sidewalk. Although I prefer to ride on the less busy streets, you can't always get from point A to point B that way and if there's a short stretch of heavy traffic to contend with - on a street with no shoulder, I'd definitely get on the sidewalk - go nice and easy and watch all around - rather than put myself out with tons of machinery cutting around me by inches.

Although I agree it's a good general rule to ride on the street and not the sidewalk, never say "never." --

Deb
Sounds a whole lot like Champaign-Urbana and my decision process.

A dogmatic soul is going to find *some* reason to shut me out anyway... if it weren't that trip on the sidewalk, I'm sure there would be some other equally arbitrary label that would suffice. I'm not a cyclist because - oh, heaven forfend! - I actually *think* and decide instead of following The Dogma (Not a law, now... just somebody's dogma). My karma long since ran over my dogma.