“Get off of the road!”

That phrase will be yelled out of the window of a moving car at a cyclist at least a couple of hundred times, guaranteed.

Roads are dominated by cars; it’s their realm. They are the mighty self-appointed kings of the asphalt.

Traffic lights, laws and roadways are all designed to cater to the needs of the motorist.

Only recently have people realized that roads should be accessible to all forms of transportation, including the bicycle.

Bicycles are considered to be drivers when they are on the road. Just like a car can’t drive on the sidewalk, neither can a cyclist.

When cyclists are forced off of the roads and onto sidewalks, a harmless commute has the potential to turn deadly fast. Bicycles belong on the road, because just like cars, they can be dangerous to pedestrians. When a cyclist rides at 20 mph on a sidewalk, it’s the same as a car traveling down a freeway at 70 mph.

Just last year, Sacramento Bee columnist Hilary Abramson, 69, was hit by a cyclist on a sidewalk in Midtown. She was seriously injured and is still recovering from several surgeries.

Abramson has campaigned for stricter bicycle laws since her accident, even going as far as suggesting cyclists should require a license to operate a bicycle within city limits.

However the problem is not the cyclist, the problem is that roads are not made for more than one form of legal transportation.

The cyclist never should have been on the sidewalk, that is not debateable on either side of the argument.

But, when you are trying to ride and live in an unfriendly land, it is easy to see why the cyclist had to ride on the sidewalk.

The cyclist that hit Abromson, and so many others, might have felt forced to use the sidewalk instead of the roads.

A cyclist who is using the sidewalk for commuting, is the equivalent of a car using the freeway.

Neither one of which are safe for pedestrians.

When cyclists are forced onto the sidewalks, everyone loses. Motorists don’t learn how to share the road, cyclists can’t ride on busy sidewalks and pedestrians get put into harms way.

Everyone who pays taxes, pays to use roadways.

It’s time for everyone to default back to their kindergarten roots and learn to share.

Be seen, stay safe and ride on.