There is good reason most bicyclists ride on the sidewalk.

So you, a bicyclist, are out for a ride one day. You're riding in the street, let's say McGregor Blvd, on your way to meet a friend at a nearby restaurant. Suddenly, without warning, you feel a tremendous impact from behind. Next thing you know, you're airborne, then you hit the curb, and then wake up in the Intensive Care Unit. You can't feel your limbs and you see that your head is in a halo. You see your busted helmet on a nearby table. Days, weeks, and months go by, you still have no feeling in your arms or legs, and then you get the picture. You've been permanently paralyzed from the neck down. Your days of cycling are over for good. And not only that, but you are now confined to a motorized wheelchair for the rest of your life. Later, you learn the driver that hit you fled the scene, never even stopped, and is still at large, with at worst, a shallow dent in his front bumper from his impact with you. Nobody knows it, but the driver that hit you is even a visitor from Glen Ellyn, Illinois.

Scenes like that are the exact reason why many cyclists choose the sidewalk, especially when riding near busy streets. Sidewalk cyclists know that any car that tries to hit them on the sidewalk would pop it's tires and likely tear up the undercarriage on the curb. Other obstacles such as trees, signs, and light poles would cause further damage to any automobile that tried to drive on the sidewalk.

People who don't like cyclists seriously need to go back to New York City, where in fact it's totally illegal (up to 5 years imprisonment on Rikers Island) to operate a bicycle, on both street and sidewalk. Bicycles are totally illegal in New York City.