do you got a seat belt on your uni?
Dam, this is bad :s hopefully you sort it man, best of luck!
Many of the serious injuries I know of from unicycling have occurred on-road. What are the odds that an experienced bicyclist would incur broken leg bones (including a compound fracture) on two separate bike tours, as Ken Looi did?
Falls on a unicycle are less likely to cause injury, but falling is far more likely than on a bike. And you must consider not only the risk to the rider, but the risk to others, as unicycles can go all kinds of weird places in a UPD.
I don’t think unicycling is dangerous a priori, but it clearly has risks, some of which are worse than the equivalent risk on a bike.
Sorry, I should have spoken about wheel size.
All of the my post above was assuming the more usual kind of unicycle wheel sizes i.e. 20", 24", 24x3, 26, possibly 29-ers (not that you’d expect to find a 20" on the road of course).
Certainly not 36-ers, as, IMO, they are more dangerous than the smaller wheels, and, in the context of the threatened ban in the OPs post, I’m guessing that there won’t be many 36-ers in that city, as they tend to be pretty rare.
I am aware of the nasty proken leg on the Thailand tour- also, I know Roger davies of the UK has broken his arm on 2? occasions.
But those kind of injuries seem to occur on 36-ers and on the recent geared big wheelers, which I do consider to be more hazardous than other unicycles, which is part of the reason I don’t ride them myself.
A big priority for me is safety- I strongly dislike being injured, and, one reason I ride my unicycle is because I consider it to be, not just good for my health, but, also very safe.
I have fallen off it, but never been badly hurt.
Also, however low risk an activity is, if you do thousands of hours of it, it becomes ever more likely that a bad injury will occur, by sheer statisitcs. The fact remains that, after over 10 years of riding, much of it on roads, often several times a week, i’ve not hurt myself badly, which suggests to me that it’s a relatively safe activity.
(The ridings been primarily on a 24x3, sometimes a 29-er).
I’m not interested in either 36-ers, or using super-short cranks, precisley because, IMO, they would increase the risk of serious injury.
I’ve also pretty much lost interest in bicycling, because, IMO, in sheffield, there’s a substantial risk of injury or death.
you also mention risk to others as “as unicycles can go all kinds of weird places in a UPD”- again, that’s pretty much restricted to 36-ers, certainly a 24" wheel uni isn’t going to go anywhere in a UPD, other than straight down 
Those road rides bring in the higher speed of 36" wheels and/or geared hubs. In fact Ken Looi’s second bone-breaking accident may not have been so if he hadn’t broken it before. Also Ken’s first fracture crash was a Schlumpf thing; hard to know if wheel size was a factor. Speed probably was, but it was a defect in the hub that caused the crash. Defects can happen, but they’re very rare occurrences.
I thought the OPs story was about unicyclists who were commuting. Probably not on 36", but that size is the optimum for commutes.
Me too, especially after my one broken bone, which was road riding on a 36" (ungeared). It changed some of my riding habits. Not to the extent of switching to a slower unicycle, but definitely in limiting my top speed, and also in how I tie my shoes! 
Wait–you’ve never had a unicycle “shoot out” from you in a dismount? Happens with any size, though more to beginners than to seasoned riders.
I’ve learned to mostly ignore Billy when he posts stuff like this, but for this one I will respond as follows:
“Duh.”
Something going wrong with the gearing system on a bike is very unlikely to cause a crash, whereas something going wrong with the gearing system on a unicycle is almost certain to.
Higher speeds are more dangerous than lower speeds, on bike or on unicycle. F=MA. But not crashing is safer than crashing.
Did you say “down”?
(1:17)
??most objects will go a long way if you drop them down a steep hill
Not sure how that relates to riding a 24" uni on a orad though.
I’m in the UK, and I’m not sure if maybe the definition of ‘commute’ in the U.S, is the same as here?
I view it as meaning getting from one place to another, in which case a 36" is most certainly not the optimum size.
For my commute, I prefer a 24x3, it’s got the right mix of speed, controlability, portability and safey for me.
For long rides on emptyish roads or tours, I’m sure the 36" is optimum.
But for where I commute, it wouldn’t work that well- I don’t even think it would be faster as much of my riding is in town with traffic lights and pedestrians etc.
There is someone here in the local juggling club who’s got a 36"-er, but he refuses to ride it in town cos it’s just not that practical.
I figured that statement would generate other views. It very much depends on the commute. I used to ride 8 miles to work. I didn’t do it every day, which lessens the “commute” label, but I could have. Anyway, a 36" is most definitely the optimum vehicle for that commute. But in dense city traffic (and going a shorter distance) I definitely might prefer a smaller wheel.
More info
Sorry about not replying, new to forum and expected I’d have gotten an email about any replies.
I was impressed with the thoughtful replies early on, until it got theoretical-also good, but not as helpful. To clarify some things:
My position is chair of the committee which has been tasked by the City Manager to provide a solution to this issue.
Here is a shortcut to relevant laws through our website. http://bikemorgantown.com/bikelaw.php
1 unicyclist has been cited with 373.08d [Riding a skateboard on sidewalk], and also 373.07d [Riding a bicycle without a helmet] . NOTE I paraphrased both laws there. He contested in magistrate court and won. Then when the proposed changes to city code went to City Council, and ended up being sent to the Morgantown Bicycle Board, of which I’m a member.
I’m also a LAB LCI, and USAC Racer/Official, so I’m quite familiar with the ins and outs of bicycling on roads and sidewalks.
I have a meeting planned with the police, to find out what the exact issues are – I wanted to get some background knowledge first.
The bicycle board’s goal is to 1) resolve this issue 2) amend other ordinances in 373 to be clearer, and meet the needs of the public. One of which, I’m considering is permitting any form of transportation on sidewalks that doesn’t exceed pedestrian pace, if used for transportation. (Currently skateboards are explicitly banned).
But right now, I have to figure out how to keep unicycles as a viable means.
Some other facts. The 2 current active riders are on 20" fat tired things (looks way inefficient for commuting). When I rode my 26" with 165cranks I could barely ride the hill which separates the 2 major campuses (I’d guess 4% avg grade for 1.1 mile). I was on the WVU [bi]cycling team.
Pedestrian pace includes runners, joggers, sprinters, who prefer to use the sidewalk than street, correct?
Runners are not ticketed for using the sidewalk, are they?
I believe most of the UK bicycle laws were amended to refer to cycles so as to encompass unicycles, tricycles etc, that seems the most logical and straight forward thing to do.
Although cyclists do use pavements here but generally if they are not thundering along nobody cares too much, cyclist jumping red lights is the biggest issue
This is an interesting topic and one that’s been on my mind recently.
I’ve been riding to work the last couple of days on a 20". Most of my route is on quiet roads/away from road cycle path which is fine. There is a 1 mile section of my route which deals with a fairly busy road.
On this section I’ve been riding on the pavement as I don’t consider myself safe enough to be on the road. I don’t deal with camber that well yet and the cars don’t give a lot of room for cyclists. I travel at an average of 4.5 mph max 6.5 sometimes (Mostly when I’ve leant to far forwards or been blown by the wind and am correcting myself :-P).
Should I be riding on the road in this situation? At what size wheel/speed should you always be on the road. I’d like some clarity on that and I wonder what others do?
If that is Oxford in the UK then you should legally be on the road.
However like you on some of the main roads round here it is constant traffic with HGVs’ etc so pootling along on the pavement on my 24" is what I do, on the less busy roads I ride on the road obeying all road laws. That said if there is lots of pedestrians I will just push or carry my Uni as I don’t want to hurt anyone.
Police don’t do anything about Bikes thundering around on the pavement 99.9% of the time so they certainly won’t do anything about a Uni, also based on things I have read online because of the rarity of Unicyclists most incidents are from police telling riders to get on the pavement which is incorrect! 
All the times I have passed police on the road and pavement I have just got the same look of amazement/surprise that everyone gives me
I think it is just about being sensible at the end of the day
Brits don’t know “pavement” means the road where cars drive, they mistakenly think it means sidewalk where people walk:p;)
That’s right. We’re just asking the police and lawmakers to be sensible and leave us out of your laws and tickets! 
I was confused about the difference between pavement and road too.
I’ll admit, I’m not that into the unicycle scene. I rode a lot when it was practical for me (3mi of commuting daily and also 4-7 flights of stairs). At least here, where it’d be hard to ever average above 5mph, I cannot see why a unicycle belongs in the street when there’s a sidewalk available.
If I’m wrong, I’d certainly like to learn why.
As for bicycles, most of the educated bike board members would like to see bicyclists riding in the streets, never on the sidewalk, but understand that less experienced riders may not ride at all if not permitted to use the sidewalk. However, using the sidewalk means yielding to pedestrians. This is not within the law, but is usually overlooked. “Bicyclists fare best when they act and are treated as drivers of vehicles” -John Forester
Personally I wouldn’t ride a 20"-er on the roads, as-
a. it’s very slow
b. it just looks bad- 20"-ers have that characteristic ‘wobbliness’, most drivers will assume you’re clowning around and roads aren’t the best place for that
My experience has been with 24x3 and 29-er, my feelings are that the 29-er is best suited to being on the road, as it’s fairly fast, tall, so you’re highly visible and, assuming you’re a good enough rider, which you should be if you’re going on the roads, rides straight.
I feel the 29-er is less good on pavements, due to the bigger wheel meaning a bit less control, especially if, as with mnay 29-er set ups, it’s got shorter cranks. Also, the extra height is just that little bit more intimidating to some pedestrians.
The 24x3 is very good on pavements (sidewalks) as it’s almost as easy to control as a 20"-er (for idling etc), but has sufficient speed to quickly overtake sluggish pedestrians.
I also find if fine on the roads- obviously it’s not quite so fast as a 29-er, but I’m happy riding it on roads.
Obviously, only go on roads if you are sufficiently good a rider that you’re not going to UPD, are able to look behind you without falling off and, understand the rules of the road/highway code. Also, do your best to be legal, for example, make sure you’re got front and rear lights in case you end up riding when it’s dark.
One reason I ride the 24x3 most, is precisely because it’s suitable for both road and pavement- while I’m confident of my own abilites on the road, I don’t have the same faith in the abilities of some car drivers, and having the pavement/sidewalk option is useful.
On my 36", I have rear light, head lamp, bell, and can ride as fast as the slower bikes on the road. I know there are a lot of people like that on here, and they are even faster than I. So when you have a unicycle doing the same speeds, and using the same safety equipment as a bike, they should probably be riding with the bikes. It’s hazardous to be riding between pedestrians like that.
But I always just switch between Road, bike path, and sidewalk, depending on which is less crowded and which is smoothest.
A 20" uni obviously doesn’t belong on the road, but it serves a different purpose such as tricks etc. I don’t think you can make rules based on the number of wheels something has. No where else are there rules based on # of wheels, and I think people need to realize, it’s not the number or type of wheels you’re on but what you are doing on them.