No, riding a bicycle on the sidewalk does not reduce the odds of an accident with a car, a truck, a bus or another motor vehicle. In fact, studies find that it is often more dangerous to ride on the sidewalk and that accident risks go up.
It does make sense why many cyclists would feel safer on the sidewalk. Sharing the road with drivers who are distracted by their cellphones and always in a hurry can feel very dangerous. Many cyclists encounter numerous near misses or dangerous driving behaviors, even when they do not directly lead to a crash. Riding on the sidewalk gives them more space from these dangerous drivers.
2 significant problems
One issue is that cycling on the sidewalk is often prohibited by state laws or local ordinances. But from a crash perspective, a big part of the problem is simply that bicycles are much faster than pedestrians.
For example, if a driver is turning across the sidewalk to enter a parking lot, they are going to look for pedestrians on the sidewalk before they execute the turn. But if there is not someone actively in the way, the driver believes that the path is clear. A cyclist who is coming up the sidewalk may be out of their range of vision, but will close that distance so fast that they could enter the car’s path.
On top of that, drivers do not expect cyclists to be on the sidewalk in the first place. Even an attentive driver may check the bike lane to see if there is a cyclist approaching. But they are not looking for a bike on the sidewalk in the first place, so the odds of accidents at intersections, or in other scenarios where drivers are actively turning, go up significantly.
Seeking financial compensation
As a cyclist, even if you ride in the bike lane or on the side of the road correctly, sharing the street with other drivers, you could still be injured in an accident caused by someone else’s negligence. If you are, you need to know how to seek financial compensation.