do you ever go through red lights?

[blackhillsbiker]

There are a couple of places where I have to use the sidewalk on my commute. I am very watchful and careful of pedestrians. There are very few at that time of the morning. I don't make them get out of my way. Part of downtown has a split sidewalk with part being designated for bikes and part for pedestrians.

Deb

[Crankin]

I do exactly what Biciclista does. I never run red lights, but I do use rolling stops at some stop signs.
There was one highway crossing (a suburban street) that I had to do when I commuted. It was about 6:00 to 6:15 AM when I got there and hardly any cars. My bike would not trip the signal, so I did cross on the red a few times. There's no ped. signal there (why I don't know, since it's a major crossing for cyclists and runners to get from one side of town to the other) either.

[badger]

I ride on the sidewalk sometimes, especially when it's dark and rainy and there are big parked trucks blocking the bike path. It's along the same road that this whole thread started, and it's rarely used by pedestrians (if there are, I'll slow down and always verbalize if I'm coming up behind them).

I've had to alter my return route because the other direction of this road (they're both one way), people tend to use as a speed track. Which, incidentally, was used as a temporary Indy course when we actually had them. Now the bike path is blocked off by big huge barriers for the Olympics so there's really no place for cyclists to go.

It's getting off topic a bit, but I find it ironic how the powers-that-be tell residents to leave the car at home, to bike or take transit during the Olympics, but on the next breath they tell us to expect hours-long delays on transit or bike paths being closed.

[Cataboo]

I typically ride away from downtown when I leave my house, but it's pretty irritating when I do decide to go downtown to go to the post office or the library via bike. There's maybe a 1 mile stretch which has a lot of traffic dumping into it from the highway and a military base, with businesses , banks, restaurants, and gas stations all crammed in it... I tend to ride on the road there, but if it's rushhour, I will usually ride on the sidewalk. Although, the sidewalk in several places just has like 8 inch drops in it or disappears or has a telephone pole in the middle of it. And it's going up and down driveways constantly. Actually crossing the entrance ramp for teh highway can be hard, because everyone floors it when they get in the vicinity of it.

The way back in the same stretch is full of disappearing sidewalks and at least 2 parallel grates in the road with spacing larger than my tires. (both directions have grates with potholes all about them)

I'm pretty sure if I ever get hit by a car, it'll be on this one little stretch.