You decide to take up cycling, but you feel very nervous the first time you go for a ride. You are on the shoulder of the road, where you are supposed to be, but it feels like all of the cars are incredibly close when they pass. You are constantly worried that someone is going to knock you off your bike or even rear-end you when you are stopped in traffic.
As a result, you decide to get off the street and simply ride your bike down the sidewalk. That is how you learned to ride when you were a child, after all, and it feels much safer because you have more separation from vehicles. Is this actually a good idea?
Accident odds are higher
In reality, your odds of being hit by a car are higher if you ride your bike on the sidewalk than if you simply ride in the street. While accidents can happen in either location, they statistically happen more often to cyclists who are using sidewalks, even though those cyclists tend to feel safer—until they get hit.
There are a few issues to consider here. One is simply that drivers do not expect to see cyclists on the sidewalk, so they are not looking for them. Many drivers will turn across the sidewalk to enter a parking lot, for instance, and they could hit a cyclist they never saw.
The speed of a bicycle is also a problem. Most drivers do check sidewalks to make sure they are clear before turning. But they are generally just looking for pedestrians, and a bike could close the distance much faster.
Have you been injured?
That said, you could certainly be struck by a car even when riding on the road, despite the fact that it is statistically safer. If you do get injured, you should carefully look into your options to seek financial compensation.
