Every time you ride your bike, you feel incredibly nervous. Drivers are constantly coming up behind you and passing without giving you the proper amount of space. You may feel like you have been involved in numerous near misses, and you are worried that you are going to get involved in a collision leading to serious injuries.
To counter this risk, you debate just riding your bike on the sidewalk. You often see children learning how to ride their bikes on the sidewalks, so it makes sense to you that this would be a safer environment. Is that something you should consider?
2 main problems
Children often do ride their bikes on sidewalks when they are first learning because the trips are short and it is easy for parents to supervise them. But remember that there can be a serious problem with doing this yourself if the city or municipality that you are riding through has laws against it. Some places have enacted laws to keep bikes off of sidewalks and reserve them only for pedestrians, and you do need to follow those regulations.
The second thing to consider is that riding on the sidewalk is not even safer. It may be for a child who is just circling the block while learning to ride without training wheels. But for an adult, riding on the sidewalk means that you are not where drivers expect to see you. You are actually statistically more likely to get hit by a car because a driver who is turning into a parking lot or pulling out of a driveway would never expect you to be on the sidewalk and may not look for your bike.
All that being said, collisions can certainly lead to serious injuries. If you have been hit by a negligent motorist, you need to know how to seek financial compensation.