Why Sidewalk Riding is Illegal

If you are over 12 years old, riding on the sidewalk is illegal in Philadelphia (and many other areas throughout the state).

Of course, people still do. But since the city is now talking about strictly enforcing bicycle laws by ticketing cyclists on the sidewalk up to $50 (click here for our media round-up), we wanted to take a second to explain why riding on the street is important, and safer too.

• Riding on the sidewalk is more dangerous than riding on the street. It might feel more safe to ride on the sidewalk because you don't have cars along with you, but on the sidewalk there are more chances for conflict, and crashes. Statistically, bicycle crashes with injury are almost twice as likely on the sidewalk (and 3.6 times as likely if you are riding against traffic).

• Motorists aren't expecting fast moving vehicles on the sidewalk. Bicyclists coming off the sidewalk into a crosswalk or driveway are more likely to get hit by a car that's turning or pulling up to the road.

• If you crash into someone, you could be liable. The two recent deaths of pedestrians who were hit by bicyclists show that bicycles have the ability to cause serious injury to pedestrians, even if the rider doesn't get hurt.

• Bikes can legally ride in the center of the road, if there's not enough space to safely share a lane of travel. Click here for more on how to ride safely in the street.

• It is faster to ride on the street. You can avoid streets with lots of cars by knowing which streets have bike lanes, wide shoulders, or low traffic. Click for more tips on choosing a fast and safe route, plus our online Philadelphia Bicycle Map.

• For more safe biking tips, please refer to the Commuting Tips links on the right side of this blog.
  

As road users, we all have to do our part to make the roads safe, which means following the rules of the road. Bending the rules to ride on the sidewalk only pushes the chaos onto the sidewalk as well, where bikes become the bullies.

And lastly, we want to suggest, rather than riding your bike on the sidewalk, try walking your bike to the next block where the street has lower traffic volumes and is headed in the correct direction.

Thanks to Gary Rides Bikes Blog for the image.