"In the case of riding on sidewalks, BPAC recommended allowing bicyclists to ride against the direction of traffic if vehicle traffic goes above 35 miles per hour, if there is only one sidewalk on the road, or if the bicyclist stays below 5 miles per hour — the same rules would apply to people using other transportation devices."

Am I reading this correctly? BPAC and the council want to allow bikes, skateboards, whatever on sidewalks?!?!

@History Buff - I'm pretty sure their first preference would be to add wide bike lanes to those streets, but until that is done, bicycling on the sidewalks maybe safer than bicycling in 35mph traffic (especially on streets where speed limit enforcement is poor). The city needs to encourage people to bicycle to work and many businesses are located on streets like this or there are no good alternative routes.

I had to learn bike safety at school. I was taught that there are times that the safest thing to do in many places is to dismount from the bike and become a pedestrian. Why is this never mentioned?

It's pretty much about the laws of the road. Dismounting isn't in the law in most situations. Besides, we were all taught about the speed laws when we learned to drive. As I see it, about 90% of the drivers ignore this when the CLEARLY safest thing to do on the road is slow down and drive at or below the posted speed limits.

I look at the situation of proposed riding on the sidewalk. There are a pile of restrictions noting when it is OK to do so. As I see it, the conditions that would allow it would be great for kids safety. Youngsters sidewalk riding at walking speed (<5mph)when cars are traveling >35 mph sounds prudently safe for kids. It's very restricted as to the situations where this would be allowed. Seems reasonable to me.

Sometimes it is more prudent to be safe than do something just because it is legal.

There are many times I dismount my bike and become a pedestrian because it seems safer to me. Many intersections, such as San Antonio and El Camino to turn left on a bike, make much more sense to me to act as a pedestrian pushing my bike. It may take a little longer, but at least I know I will be more safe.

If we lived our lives, fear full of what others perceive as dangerous, we would end up doing nothing at all. Act within the laws and within your OWN comfort zone.
Just don't expect others to see things as safe or dangerous as you do, and especially don't expect them to alter their actions if they are already acting within the law, because you personally feel differently about things.