Comment by whimsicalism
4 years ago
No e-biker should be on a sidewalk.
There are informal norms. Cyclists who cycle on sidewalks should be relatively new and should make sure to behave explicitly with all of the rules of the road (ie. don't run a red from the sidewalk as a cyclist, very dangerous. if you must, dismount and walk across or wait for the pedestrian light). Cyclists on the street are generally more experienced and do not have to explicitly follow all rules IMO.
Not just informal norms, in many states formal laws, just ones that are hardly ever enforced this century. (Many of them on are on the written part of your driving test, though people don't take those often enough to remember their details.)
For example, Kentucky law requires bicyclists over the age of 11 to use the streets. (Prohibits sidewalk usage.)
Washington state law allows sidewalk usage, but also requires wider sidewalks than the Kentucky minimum, and includes a lot of very specific wording about pedestrian right of way on sidewalks (sidewalks are theirs first) and mandate being very careful in overtaking pedestrians and other cyclists.
If you're piloting a vehicle on the road, you should follow all the rules of the road. This is the reason people hate cyclists.
Laws have social interpretation around them - there are plenty of road laws I see routinely broken for convenience by cars that are effectively unenforced.
"Idaho stops", ie. treating stop signs as yields is both enshrined in law in a few different areas and should be law in many others.
Idaho stops are perfectly acceptable in my view.