I also live in a *supposedly* bike friendly town. To me, the barriers make a lot of sense. The bike lanes that we have seem to be worse than riding in traffic because of all the parked cars, parking cars, turning cars, lack of bike lanes in intersections (!) and that they don't connect to each other. Even the roads here don't connect to each other so all the traffic, bikes, peds, and cars get on these major roads. It is scary. I take the sidewalk sometimes because that seems safest.

northstar- How do people get in accidents on the sidewalk?