Joggers and natural selection

What is wrong with some joggers? Why do they run down the side of the street when there is a good, clean, undamaged sidewalk? I saw one this evening on the way home from work running down the road. While he was running against traffic he was on the side of the roadway when there was a perfectly clean, undamaged sidewalk. Perhaps there is something I am missing? Do these people have a death wish or are they so bored they need the occasional near death experience a front bumper from a Buick to keep them from falling asleep? Can someone please educate me regarding this? I see it in the suburbs and the city and it seems to be worse the more traffic there is.

thanks for letting me rant.

Being a hardcore runner, I can tell you that what appears to be a perfectly good sidewalk for walking, may not be for running. Especially if you are a marathoner who has a low footstrike. The road is a lot more consistently level than a sidewalk. The latter is made up of many small sections of concrete with edges between them just waiting to trip you up.

The other issue with sidewalks for running is that things like driveways and such add even more inconsistency for footstrike.

That said, running along a busy road is not a particularly smart thing to do, especially given how inattentive most drivers are these days.

So that's the "why". Doesn't make running in the road smart, but does explain why many don't run on the sidewalk. Me, I prefer trails to train on but I do plenty of miles on the street, too.

--Andy

The rule I was always told is to:

Walk or jog against traffic so you can see the traffic is at.

Ride your bicycle with traffic.

I see a lot of bicyclists riding against traffic which is scary at dusk or nighttime.

I guess if your a marathon runner who does many races on city streets it makes sense to want to train on the streets, but still...I'd imagine that having good footwork would be valuable as well.

Then again, I don't run much, and if I spent anytime more cross-training , I'd probably break an ankle.

I love running in the mountains.

Asphalt is also much softer than concrete.

Florida has solved this problem

My gripe is the packs of 20 a-holes sporting the latest trend in spandex, all the way across a lane, don't move out of your way, flick you off when you beep, and suck at life cyclists. If you are one, I hope you are offended, because I could really care less, learn how to hug the side of the f'ing road.

My mommy taught me not to play in the street.

Monkeywrench wrote: Asphalt is also much softer than concrete.

That's probably the main reason somebody would chose to run on the road. I've been running for a long, long time and there IS a difference between running on concrete and asphalt. Concrete is killer on your legs for long amounts of time. That still doesn't mean I'd be jumping on the busiest road in town during rush-hour.

I know bicyclists have the right to be on the road, but it pisses me off when they don't stop at stop signs... I love yelling at them to "share the road!"

Joey

DirtyBird222 wrote: My gripe is the packs of 20 a-holes sporting the latest trend in spandex, all the way across a lane, don't move out of your way, flick you off when you beep, and suck at life cyclists. If you are one, I hope you are offended, because I could really care less, learn how to hug the side of the f'ing road.

In D.C. we have packs of roller-bladers after dark on busy streets, and we're not the most sober of drivers here in the nation's capital! Not me, I do drink, just no car in a while - I walk everywhere, but on sidewalks where I only have to worry about shiny happy person latino cyclists.

My wife says they do it because they know how much it annoys me.

We have the same problem here, however, it's a pack of Sk8er boyz.....6-10 of them all over the streets.Doesn't really matter to them about traffic.

I got honked at the other day for riding my bike to work because I was in the road on a bridge. I was off to the side, there were two lanes, and it wasn't busy.

Long story short, I don't honk at things other than cars in the road. It's ignorant. They're trying to get somewhere, just like you.

And also, if someone is running in the road, it would be nice for them to have reflective and/or light-emitting clothing/devices. Cars do, you should too.

In every driving class I've taken we were instructed to beep the horn as we passed a bicyclist, jogger, ect to let them know they were about to be passed. Especially now that they all have ipods and phones attached to their heads we have a number of accidents where the will turn directly in front of, or even more impressive, into the middle or rear of a passing vehicle and state they didn't know it was there.

Wally wrote: In every driving class I've taken we were instructed to beep the horn as we passed a bicyclist...

That's bad advice. Those of us who obey the law, have our hearts pounding in our ears and are pushing ourselves to the brink of death can have a friggin' heart attack, or worse, jerk the bars and swerve into you.

11110000 wrote:

Wally wrote: In every driving class I've taken we were instructed to beep the horn as we passed a bicyclist...

That's bad advice. Those of us who obey the law, have our hearts pounding in our ears and are pushing ourselves to the brink of death can have a friggin' heart attack, or worse, jerk the bars and swerve into you.

Doesn't seek like a good idea to push yourself to the brink of death on a public street. Streets are for commuting, not exersizing.

Joey

It's still bad advice - honking is for preventing imminent accidents, not passing. You should treat a bicycle on the road much the same as you would a slow-moving tractor.

DirtyBird222 wrote: My gripe is the packs of 20 a-holes sporting the latest trend in spandex, all the way across a lane, don't move out of your way, flick you off when you beep, and suck at life cyclists. If you are one, I hope you are offended, because I could really care less, learn how to hug the side of the f'ing road.

do not start this argument again. We all know you have a spandex fetish.