Originally Posted by
elocs
Except in the downtown area, it is perfectly legal to ride your bike on the sidewalks--yielding to pedestrians just like on a MUP, and in the crosswalk you have the same rights as a pedestrian. I use the sidewalks in my city as much as possible and have ridden 8 miles from one end of the city to the other, only encountering a few people walking and having no trouble. I ride on the side streets which are wide and are where there are bike lanes as well as on the MUPs. This has kept me safe from ever being hit by a motor vehicle in my 58 years of riding a bike.
Nearly every state makes it illegal to ride your bike on the sidewalk. The few that don't outright ban it make it legal only in certain circumstances and the default is illegal unless specifically legalized. My state makes it legal only if the local government makes it legal, and after combing through more traffic studies than I thought could exist for a tiny county, the verdict is that actual sidewalks are pedestrian only and bikes are permitted only on "hiker/biker trails".
Basically in the eyes of the law we are road vehicles. We are cars without motors and not enough wheels. Bicycles being on sidewalks are the same as jumping your car up over the curb onto one.