Riding bike on sidewalks

Your chances of having a collision when riding your bike on the sidewalk is 25 times greater than riding on a road or bike path.

25 times more likely to have a collision.

25 TIMES.

Pay attention here: the people the bicycle riders are running into are pedestrians. Pedestrians are people who have an absolute, complete, and total right to use the sidewalk for walking and to be safe from the danger from moving vehicles (that is a category that includes human powered vehicles like bicycles). It is called a side walk... side "walk." What part of side"walk" is for bicycles? None is the right answer.

Key Message: do not use the sidewalk like it is your own personal bike path. It isn't.

It's ok to go outside and ride your bike and have some fun, just please don't run down people on the sidewalk, And even if you think, I'm riding safely on the sidewalk, let us remind you that the pedestrians (each and every one of them) think YOU are about to HIT them with your bike.

You don't mean to scare them, but you are going a lot faster than people walking, and the sidewalk is busy, and you are riding right at them... Aieee!

Once you stop being a child (around the age you become a teenager) it is time to learn the safe way to use the road to travel on a bicycle. (Information here from the saaq, transport quebec, and velo-quebec on the subject of bicycle safety.

So let's try to have more civility, civisme, manners, etiquette, and just common sense. And get off the sidewalk.