First off let me reassure you this is just In My Honest Opinion. I get a lot of people asking me whether I ride on the sidewalks or in the street. When I first started commuting I rode on the sidewalks since as riding as a kid this is just how it was done. I slowly began to prefer riding in the street with traffic and here are a few reasons why.
* Most stop signs are usually what seems to be 5 to 10 feet behind the sidewalks. Cars are supposed to stop there and pedestrians to have the right of way. 9 out of ten times cars pull right up to the street not even seeing you as they fly past the sidewalk. This is dangerous.
* If you still choose the sidewalk then you have to almost stop or go around cars at every single street. Now we need to leave a lot earlier to get to work on time. It just takes the pleasure out of the ride.
When I started commuting I scoped out a few different routes by car first. I try to take streets wide enough to support cars 2 abreast as well as me on the side. Many times when it gets real congested I will slide up on the sidewalk for a bit until a few cars pass. After I scoped out a route I mapped my ride to see the distance and about how long it would take me. You could even get dropped off to ride the trip home as not to be rushed, and you can get a good baseline like that.
I also ride kind of late at night due to my work hours. People are like forget that not out there with all the drunks, and evil doers. I love riding at night, hardly any traffic and its nice and cool you get the whole lane to yourself if you really want it. I am more worried about getting run over by someone texting during the day then someone drunk at night. Far as the evil doers I pick streets I know there are lots of police passing by all the time, besides that if I can’t outrun someone then I might have just what they are looking for assuming its trouble…
