a pavement is any paved surface, especially a road. A sidewalk is a sidewalk and is usually paved, but it's not referred to as pavement when you mean sidewalk. However, if the sidewalk is paved and the road is not, or there is some other unpaved area, and you want your kids to get onto the paved part, you can certainly say "get on the pavement." But it doesn't automatically mean "sidewalk." :-)

blast, just realised I meant CAN(adian) English, was thinking of the Internet addresses for Canada when I wrote CA!

Agree with dude: pavement is the surfacing and can be on a road or a sidewalk. If a person is "pounding the pavement" pavement is associated with sidewalk, but otherwise I would immediately think of a road rather than a walkway.
That said, the Pennsylvania part of my family always called the sidewalk the pavement. But that may have been regional, or just another example of family weirdness.

(using the spiffy edit function now that I see CM2DD'S amendment)

I spent a lot of time in Toronto as a child and recall "sidewalk" being used there.

Thanks! I guess I'll go for "roadway" and "walkway" then. I haven't been asked to write in Canadian English, but I can see this causing quite a lot of confusion if I use the British version of "pavement" :-)

Keep in mind that a walkway in North America often refers to a bride-like thing connecting two buildings or spanning something like train lines.

a bride-like thing, Selkie? Is this a Freudian slip? ;-)

I can see this subject is riddled with pitfalls :-)

They fold up the pavements here at night, but I think that would be difficult with a roadway.

Mmm, yes, the bridge lost its g. Obviously another example of poor engineering. I hope no one was injured by the falling debris.

#8 is this another definition of "roadway" I've overlooked?

In AE, they roll up the sidewalks. :-)

@Selkie: as long as the bride wasn't hurt, I think we're all okay. :-)

So a "sidewalk" for people to walk on next to the "roadway", does that work?

(Talking of Freudian slips: just proofreading my own work and discovered I'd created a "guidance system for the blond" :-)

As in blond, James blond?

Is there anything that precludes the use of road or street? Roadway sounds quite technical.

It's to distinguish between the entire road and the part the cars drive on (the other parts are for trams and bikes).

Car lanes? In contrast to bike lane and tramline? We need some Canadians to confirm, but just south of the border, roadway would be unusual in a text that was not technical in nature.

generally speaking, in AE, a road doesn't have a sidewalk, only a shoulder (or two, actually.) A street husually as a sidewalk.

you walk on the sidewalk and drive in the street or on the road (road being more colloquial than specific if it refers to street...)
- the pavement is what covers both ('she fell on the pavement' is common though, but more describing the type of surface)
- this is for Toronto, but not only.... general usage in Canada I would say