Summary: Your life expectancy is higher if you get in traffic on a bike instead of in a car. Biking alongside cars might seem dangerous – and this misconception may deter potential cyclists or lead them to risky behavior like riding on the sidewalk – but the health benefits greatly exceed the dangers of crashes and other risks.
Updated May 2024 to address link rot. This post now links to archived copies of an article by The Ann Magazine (whose website is gone, RIP) and a PDF about biking on the sidewalk.
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Last week, The Ann (an Ann Arbor magazine) showcased a story by a local NPR station about bikes and cars co-existing on the road. The Ann added their own more-provocative title: “Who owns the road: drivers or cyclists?”
Their framing succeeded in drumming up conflict-oriented comments from readers. Reading the comments, I was struck by two things: