You could not pay me to rid a bicycle on the road here in Singapore. Or in many places in Northern California. I can't tell you about Dubai, because I've never seen a cyclist on the road there. My "Risk Mitigation" strategy in these scenarios is to say, "No, Hell No."

Regarding the law - it's illegal in Redwood City to ride on the sidewalk, but almost 100% of "Utility" cyclists (that is, people taking short trips who aren't decked out in "cyclist" gear) almost always ride on the sidewalk; and the police certainly did not make it a priority to ticket them - and given the density of police cars in Redwood City, any given cyclist traveling a few kilometers was likely to be seen by one, if not more police officers.

When I lived in Boston, it was certainly legal to ride bicycles in the road (and illegal to ride them on many sidewalks), but cyclists still got hit by cars all the time. Riding with cars (whether in your own "lane" sandwiched between parked cars and moving cars, or in the same lane as the cars that want to bolt ahead at 40 mph whenever they have the chance) is the only legal option to get around by bike, but is absolutely not safe. It's one of the places where I think our legal code is absolutely bats--t crazy.

Netherlands doesn't count, it's a place where cars respect bikes and vice versa. Try riding a bicycle in a country where there's hostility between the two.