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Originally Posted by Mr.RE
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Was just looking at this. Always makes me wary when stricter bicycling/pedestrian rules are passed under the auspices of "protecting" bicyclists/pedestrians. Most of the rules seem mostly sensible; the only one I don't like is making riding on the sidewalk (unless there is no bike lane on a 25+ MPH street) strictly illegal. I don't ride on the sidewalk as a general rule, but situationally it can be necessary or safer for short distances. Plus I dislike that bicycle rules are city-dependent, so you end up with a patchwork of rules where riding on the sidewalk is OK in some cities, and not in others.
Hopefully the rule is used as a normative tool to encourage bicyclists to ride in established bike lanes, because it truly is generally safer than riding on sidewalks. But I fear that it will instead be used as a means to ticket/harass bicyclists, in particular poor bicyclists for whom bicycling is their only/main means of transportation. This fear would be reduced if there were equivalent efforts that focused on motor vehicle drivers in an effort toward "Vision Zero," but I doubt that will happen. We'll see.