It was a deceptively cheerful October morning. I mounted my buttercup yellow Schwinn road bike and set off down South Division Street to begin the day. Little did I know, I would soon become a statistic.

I had a lot to do, and my backpack was stuffed; my bike's back tire surely felt the weight. I was pedaling hard, so I was pleased when I saw the familiar white LED lights that meant it was safe for me to cross the upcoming intersection.

I was riding on the sidewalk. I always rode on the sidewalk, despite the frustration of navigating through the tangles of oblivious pedestrians. Some people told me it was easier to ride on the street, but I didn't wear a helmet, and I wasn't comfortable with the idea of sharing a lane with a two-ton hunk of steel.

As I prepared to coast across Catherine Street, I noticed a Jeep approaching the intersection - but I remember feeling perfectly content because of the walk sign.

As I entered the intersection, I realized the Jeep wasn't going to stop. I was going too fast and there was nothing I could do, so I braced myself for impact.

The Jeep's bumper made contact with the left side of my body, and I came down hard on my right elbow. I thought I was a goner when the Jeep kept rolling forward, and I heard my bike crunching beneath its tires. Was the underside of an SUV really the last thing I would ever see?

I frantically tried to scramble out from under the treacherous tires, but my backpack had twisted my body and pinned me to the street. I felt my shoulder ripping as I tried to move, but I had too much adrenaline pumping in my veins to care.

Finally, the driver found the reverse gear and backed up, dragging my poor bike.

There I sat, dazed and confused in the middle of South Division. I remember looking up at the stop lights to see if I had done something wrong, but the white "Walk" sign was only just beginning to change to flashing red. I think I blacked out after that.

On the way to the emergency room, a police officer told me what had happened wasn't my fault. But riding a bike on the sidewalk is illegal in some places, so was I wrong to ride there? Would I have been safer on the street?

Mine wasn't the first bike versus car accident in Ann Arbor. The narrow, quaint lanes here don't exactly lend themselves to easy bike traffic - which might account for the contentious relationship between the city and the city's bikers. Are more bike lanes and wider roads really on the horizon? Cyclists and city planners might hope so, but it's no guarantee.

Later that week, I spoke with Lt. Michael Logghe of the Ann Arbor Police Department. He said most cities in the state of Michigan have ordinances that bicyclists must ride in the street and that it is illegal to ride on the sidewalk, but that's not the case in Ann Arbor.

Logghe said he thought it was relatively safe to ride on the sidewalks here, and that he didn't see a lot of bike-car accidents or bike-pedestrian accidents.

"For the number of bicyclists in this city, accident rates are fairly low," he said.

But Ann Arbor Mayor John Hieftje said that this policy will likely change to follow suit with the majority of Michigan cities within one or two years.

"Every organization that governs cycling or promotes it acknowledges that cyclists should not be on the sidewalk but should instead be in the street," he said in an e-mail.

"This is recommended by the Michigan Department of Transportation."

Radiation Oncology Graphic Designer Steve Kronenberg, who actively lobbies the city for bikers' rights, said there are a few reasons why this might be a good idea.

In part, it's because of initiatives by the city of Ann Arbor and the University to promote safer and more convenient bicycling.

Hieftje said improving conditions for cycling has been one of his top priorities for Ann Arbor while in office.

In 2002, the Ann Arbor City Council passed a budget amendment sponsored by Hieftje that allocated 5 percent of all state funds the city receives to improve the quality of the roads for "alternative transit," Hieftje said in an e-mail.

"A2 is the only government in the state that does this," he said.

In March 2006, Bicycle Magazine declared Ann Arbor to be the third best city in the country for cycling among cities of 75,000 to 200,000 residents.

The University is currently involved in a project with the city called the Non-motorized Transportation Plan that plans to triple the 18 miles of existing bike lanes in the city in five years and add more bike lockers.

Hieftje noted Packard Street, Liberty Street and Stadium Boulevard as roadways that have recently made room for bike lanes.