I will always attempt to ride in the street or bike lane when available. Some streets are just narrow and dangerous so after having a car come within inches of clipping you to get ahead of you it makes you feel very unsafe so I will opt to take the sidewalk on certain roads.

It’s situational. Like where the bike lane ends on pratt street approaching president. You got two choices, get on pratt or get on the sidewalk, neither is ideal as people treat pratt street like a highway.

You really trust yourself exposed on the street with the drivers we have around here?

There are so many places in the city where the fastest and safest path between two points on a scooter or a bike is to ride on the sidewalk for a block or two. The best example I have is coming north out of Otterbein/Fed Hill to get on the Sharp/Hopkins/Cathedral/Maryland cycle track. What do you do?

• Head north on Light? If you ride in the road, it's four or five lanes wide with traffic that moves way too fast for comfort. The cycle path along the harbor bends you around onto Pratt, away from where you want to go. You end up having to go Light -> Pratt -> Commerce -> Lombard -> Sharp, which is a long detour.
• Head north on Charles? Marginally better, but Charles is still three lanes wide with no shoulder from Conway to Lombard, and the road surface is atrocious. The drivers aren't much better than on Light. Plus, you still have to make a left turn across Charles onto Lombard to get over to Sharp.
• Head north on Sharp? You can't, it's one way southbound through the convention center, and riding counterflow on a road with two lanes and no shoulder is both illegal and a death wish. There is a sidewalk that will take you between Sharp & Conway and Sharp & Pratt, though.

The quickest and safest thing to do in this case is to take Sharp north out of Otterbein, cross Conway, hop on the sidewalk, duck under the convention center, and then cross Pratt onto the cycle track. It's the most direct route, and it minimizes your exposure to multiple lanes of high-speed traffic.

I wish it weren't the case, as riding on the sidewalk should be frowned upon, but because the city loves to build disjointed bike infrastructure rather than a coherent network, you end up with situations like this all over.

Riders are supposed to ride scooters on the sidewalk if the street speed limit is 30 mph or more. Pedestrians, cyclists or scooter riders who are involved in an accident with a car doing 30 mph or more have a much higher risk of death or debilitating injuries. For twenty years as a physical therapist pedestrian and cyclist injury victims were my bread and butter, that’s transitioned to shooting and assault victims because of the rising violent crime, not because the streets are safer.

The scooter companies have the rules in the app and on their website. Maybe riders read the rules and follow them, probably that is too much wishful thinking.

I used to ride scooters with my grandchildren to get ice cream from the Baskin Robbins, years ago we rode on the sidewalk when going onto Wilkens Avenue because of the speed of the cars. My grandchildren were courteous to walkers and runners, stepped off the scooters when the sidewalk narrowed or someone was passing by. Now the sidewalk is so overgrown with weeds, buckled and broken that the sidewalk is as dangerous as the streets. I believe many scooter riders today pick the safest place to ride, either street with speeding cars and potholes, or sidewalk with litter and weeds. I’m happy people still use the scooters. It’s great for your mental and physical health to be outside and get some exercise.

Those of you who walk in the street when there is a sidewalk. Why?

For the most part pedestrians are few and far between, but when I'm near them I slow down/go around. Some areas that have high foot traffic seem like terrible places to ride a scooter if there isn't a dedicated bike lane in the road.

Bold of you to assume there’s a thought process involved

It drives me insane too, but I'm not sure what you're expecting to hear.

• "I'd rather endanger than be in danger."
• "I'm not driving a car right now and only cars go in streets."
• "I don't trust drivers here... or anywhere."
• "That's what my friends and neighbors do. I honestly don't think about it much."
• "Of all the laws broken in this town today, who would bother to enforce this one?"
• "I'm paying by the mile, and it'd add $$ to my trip if I threaded it through what bike infrastructure we have here."

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They can have the sidewalks. Walker vs scooter, everybody lives and you're not blocking traffic doing 15 in a 30 zone.

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I don’t ride scooters at all, but a good reason that I’ll ride my bike on the sidewalk sometimes is because the drivers here are fucking lunatics, and in the car vs. scooter vs. bike deathmatch the car always wins.

That what alphas do

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Pretty simple: drivers try to kill you and also oppose bike lanes that make it safe for you to ride in the street.

If you want people to ride in a designated place, the best thing to do is give them a designated place.

Thanks for bringing this up, it’s made walking really scary! When I’m walking on the sidewalk, I try to not make sudden movements when I need to avoid dog poop or a puddle. I’ve had so many close calls with scooters zooming up behind me and trusting that I won’t step into their path at the wrong moment.

I’m all for a less car-centric city but please don’t ride scooters on the sidewalk. Sidewalks need to be safe for people who are walking, in strollers, and using wheelchairs.