There are real concerns with putting bicyclists on sidewalks or separated bike lanes. Those dangers include right turning vehicles not watching for bikes, motorists entering and exiting driveways, and sidewalks not designed for the speed of bicyclists. The challenge in the United States is balancing the desire to grow the number of bicyclists against ingrained driving habits. The most significant way to increase bicycle ridership is to build protected or separated bike lanes, such as in Richfield. This has been demonstrated in countries such as the Netherlands where bicyclists and motorists rarely mix on urban streets. The danger is that U.S. motorists aren’t accustomed to seeing bicyclists in those locations, so they cut across the bike lanes, stop in them while waiting for traffic to clear etc. We’re in a transition period where we are training motorists in the new norm for roadways and we’re bringing new people into bicycling, many who have few skills and little desire to mix with traffic. We have to go through this transition, and we have to build out the bicycle infrastructure, a process that is always painfully slow.

I suppose the studies showing that sidewalks are dangerous for cyclists don’t apply here because the sidewalk as a bike symbol on it.