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Jaiden's cousin was killed last year when struck by a car while jogging on the street. He was young and left a wife and child.
My brother's neighbor across the street was killed a few years back while on her morning run on the street. She was in her thirties and had a thriving veterinary business.
I drive to work at 6:30 am every weekday and there are about 2 miles along my commute that are thick with joggers, walkers, and dog-walkers at that time of day. There's a sidewalk there, but they don't all use it. The ones that are in the street often don't move off to the side when cars come.
I nearly take someone out at least twice a week, and it scares me. I'm being really careful, because I'm very aware of the danger. But you don't have that many near-misses in a row without running a big danger of a hit.
I think several things are going on here. One is that the pedestrians feel like there's plenty of room, but the people in the vehicles realize it was much closer than the pedestrians thought. Another is that those endorphins kick in to runners brains (I am also a runner, so I'm thinking of the situation from that side now), and they lose all their anxiety about the dangers. Runners don't seem to realize how invisible they are. Even when I'm going only 20 miles an hour, on those curvy roads, I often have only split seconds to react to avoid hitting someone. Drivers' reaction times are probably not as good in the early morning hours as they will be later in the day, either.
I know that hatrack has a lot of runners. I want to ask all of you to please, please, run on a track or other path that is away from the street. There are many dotted here and there in my town, and hopefully in yours too. The fumes from automobile exhaust are bad for your lungs, anyway. It's much healthier for that reason, and of course, because you avoid the catastrophic trauma that results from impact with a moving vehicle that way.
If you simply must run along a street, stick to the sidewalk. I know it's higher impact than the asphalt, but get some extra-cushioning in those running shoes. The impact of someone's fender on your side is going to be much worse than the impact of the sidewalk on your soles.
If you won't do either of those things, because you jog on little-used roads early in the morning when there is almost no traffic, like my potential future victims, then please, please, move out of the road when you hear or see a car coming. It's much harder than you imagine for a driver to miss you. I don't want to make your kids orphans, and I don't want any ugly dents in my nice new car.
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Something I learned about safety, from working in plants, construction sites, and industrial settings is this. You may be perfectly okay if you skip the safety routine this one particular time, because there's only a small probability of an accident occurring. But if you add up that probability day after day after day, then you begin to build a much larger risk.
When you see the people on the jobsite who have recovered from terrible injuries and still are working, and you realize that the ones who didn't recover aren't represented, because they're dead or unable to work. When you see fingers missing on skilled workmen's hands, burn scars, trauma scars, and so on, and hear the stories that go along with them. Then you begin to look ahead to your old age and make a plan how to come through with all your fingers intact. That's when you see that taking a little extra trouble with safety every single day is worth it.
By always following the safety rules, wearing protective equipment like hard hats, safety glasses, leather gloves, steel-toed shoes, and climbing harness when appropriate, by doing small things every day, you substantially lower your lifetime risk of a serious injury or death. These companies by strictly enforcing safety rules have lowered their average yearly fatalities and serious injuries by a huge amount.
This is wisdom. Hear it. Posts: 6246 | Registered: Aug 2004
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posted
Good grief, I suffer a serious disconnect from the way of thinking that causes people to move under their own power on a road that sees anything more than "three consecutive cars can't see each other" traffic when there is a sidewalk right there. I suppose it comes from actually having been hit by a truck while on a bike when I was younger. That's even better than a mild burn for education!
Posts: 17164 | Registered: Jun 2001
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True! And even low traffic doesn't mean NO traffic. I wish we had statistics for this, but I would bet that most of these fatalities occur in low-traffic situations.
Posts: 6246 | Registered: Aug 2004
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So what, may I ask, is your recommendation for areas with no sidewalk at all?
I'm not a runner, but I do have to walk from home to the train station twice a day five days a week. And because of new home construction one way and a town that doesn't seem to believe in sidewalks in the other direction, no matter which train station I go to, I have a section where there is absolutely no sidewalk at all. My only options are to either walk in the street for that section or to take a roughly half mile detour (on a trip that's only a little more than a half mile to start with) to maintain sidewalk access.
Posts: 4515 | Registered: Jul 2004
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I would suggest if the traffic is heavy that you take the longer route. If the traffic is light then perhaps you should step off the road into the woods or weeds or whatever at the side of the road whenever you hear or see a car coming.
One of my friends growing up got hit by a car when she was walking along the side of the road, not even on the pavement. She survived but only barely, and she had a body cast for about a year.
If I personally know of three people to whom it has happened, then it's got to be something that happens with fair frequency. Please take care of yourself and don't let it happen to you!
Posts: 6246 | Registered: Aug 2004
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One rule which we learned as children but most adults seem to have forgotten: walk facing traffic when you have to walk in the road. It really is much, much safer.
Posts: 26071 | Registered: Oct 2003
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When I run (I plan to start back up soon, got my new running shoes today) I run in the street. There are no sidewalks near me, and while it's sometimes possible to run on the grass, there is often poison ivy, and there's no way I'm going to risk that. While I appreciate your concern for runners/walkers and drivers both, finding somewhere else to run really isn't always practical. I don't have a car during the day right now (my brother has it but I have access to my mom's at night), and I'm certainly not going to walk two or three miles on still sidewalkless streets to get to the track at the middle school, where classes are still going on. I am careful to always run on the left side of the road, so I can see cars coming, there isn't too much traffic, and the road I generally run on is fairly straight with very few trees to obscure the view of drivers.
I think it's perfectly fine for people to walk and run on roads as long as both the pedestrians and the drivers realize that they have to share the roads. That means that pedestrians should be single file, facing into traffic. If you want to be next to your friend while you exercise so you can talk, fine, but keep an eye out for cars and move into single file as soon as you see one coming. If you insist on listening to music/radio, leave the ear facing the road uncovered, so you can hear what's going on around you. It is your responsibility to know what is going on around you and to keep yourself safe.
On the other hand, cars have to realize that if we don't have sidewalks, the roads are ours too. Pay attention (as you should be doing any way) and slow down to pass pedestrians. If there is a car coming from the other direction, and you will both be passing the runner at the same time, slow down so the other can pass first, and then you will have plenty of room to pass. I realize that this isn't always possible, sometimes there are just too many cars.
I feel like I'm ranting too much, so I'm going to try to summarize my thoughts. Runners don't always have an alternative to running on the street. If there are sidewalks, definitely use them, but if there aren't, be careful and pay attention. The same goes to drivers.
Posts: 1547 | Registered: Jan 2004
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MidnightBlue, believe me, I'm careful! The last thing I want is to kill someone on the way to work! What I'm trying to describe to people who feel they have a right to run on the street (of course you have a right to do any manner of things that are at the same time extremely dangerous) is the great risks they are running, that they seem unaware of.
You say you don't have an alternative, yet you do not want to be killed. Think very hard about whether it's worth the danger. I am very aware of the risk (as not all drivers will be) and I'm going slow and being quite watchful, yet I still find that I am barely able to miss people several times a week. It's your choice, of course, what risks you will run for what benefits, but I want you to be aware of how much danger you are in, that you may not realize from your perspective.
Posts: 6246 | Registered: Aug 2004
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It's especially bad on windy, mountain roads. For some reason, bicyclists and runners LOVE to use the most narrow, curving roads, preferably with a cliff face on one side and a 300' drop on the other.
It's difficult enough for a driver to stay on a narrow, mountain road, worrying about rock slides, trees or deer in the road, cars passing around corners and such, and then people want to put themselves in danger here. Seems crazy to me.
Thank goodness I've never run into anyone, but those are the places I worry most.
That, and people who walk/jog with their small children, and let the kids lag behind. A three year old walking 30' behind her mother walked right into the driveway as I was pulling in the other day. Thankfully, I was paying very close attention and have new breaks.
Posts: 3950 | Registered: Mar 2006
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Yeah, it sure would be convenient if there were a nice jogging trail near me. Sidewalks would be nice, but they are intermittent. I'd take less traffic, too.
And, if wishes were running shoes, I'd have nice ones.
quote: I'm going slow and being quite watchful, yet I still find that I am barely able to miss people several times a week
Quite a contradictory statement. I'm having difficulty visualizing how barely missing people several times a week equates with being careful. Barely miss someone? I can't remember my last close call with a pedestrian, as a driver!
Posts: 1813 | Registered: Apr 2001
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quote:Quite a contradictory statement. I'm having difficulty visualizing how barely missing people several times a week equates with being careful. Barely miss someone? I can't remember my last close call with a pedestrian, as a driver!
It depends on where you are. If you're driving the speed limit, and a pedestrian walks out from between two cars parked cars, you don't have much time to react.
If you're on a narrow road and a pedestrian weaves a little further into the road when there's a car coming at you in the other lane, there's not anywhere to go.
Posts: 3950 | Registered: Mar 2006
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Yes, I am going about 15 miles an hour on a winding road, and watching carefully for people. The visibility is not good because of the curviness of the road, the dark clothes of the people, and it's sometimes further impacted by fog. I'm crawling along, and yet people pop up into my view giving me just barely time to swerve to avoid them, once or twice a week.
There's a sidewalk right there, but they aren't using it, for whatever reason. And they must have heard me (unless they have music playing or something) and yet they didn't move off the road. It's pretty frightening. I really don't want to kill anyone. That would totally ruin my day. I'm guessing they just have no idea how close they came to being hit by me.
Posts: 6246 | Registered: Aug 2004
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