Thanks for posting that link, sounds like he was a very interesting guy. It's a real bummer that it happened but man, i've come close to hitting a few guys myself, even just driving to the park where i run off-road with my dog. Some runners/walkers/cyclists just don't bother with reflective clothing which at night/early morning is really a necessity.

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"Anyone can be who they want to be IF they have the HUNGER and the DRIVE."

Very sad. It's always going to be riskier if it's foggy too out on the roads.

In the UK we run on the sidewalk wherever possible. Running on the road is the last resort and when we do that it's always facing traffic. Is that a thing in thr US? From those clips it seems not but they might have been set up for cameras.

Same here. I almost hit a guy wearing dark clothing near dusk under a thick tree canopy. That thick canopy makes for a nice dark backdrop and clothing that's not neon or white will disappear, especially if they're very slow moving.

When cars look left and right to check for coming traffic, before turning, you need to stand out. They often look quickly and you have very little time to be noticed.

I always run against traffic but I see a lot of people running with traffic. Running with traffic would scare me since people are too distracted (with texting, phone calls, etc...) and can easily veer off the road.

I don't really know why people do it. It irritates the hell out of me. I've come close to hitting some of them especially at night. There is a perfectly good side walk to run on. The road is really cambred too compared to the flat side walk. I just don't get it.

In low light, the sidewalk is more risky to run on due to cracks and seems and other obstructions, and especially in the winter when they are probably poorly shoveled and icy

More risky than getting hit by a car? I don't think so.

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@davempratt

I'd rather run with a headlamp than share the road with cars. The sidewalk must be very sketchy to make people run in the road.

That said - just once in the UK I saw a woman running in the road - with traffic whilst a perfectly good pavement went unused. Apart from her kid on a mountain bike who was riding there....

Some people are just odd. ( the runner I saw)

The likelyhood of me stepping in an unlit hole in the sidewalk and breaking my ankle is orders of magnitude greater than me getting hit by a car and dying. Headlamps really don't do an adequate job at improving visibility at running speed (is see them more as a way to increase your visibility)

Everyone will decide on their own if they consider the sidewalk more dangerous than the shoulder.

Not justifying running without reflective clothing, but the video shows there was a shoulder (assuming the video was the road where he was hit). Should be plenty safe running on the shoulder of the road. I like the road over sidewalk, I also run against traffic. Unfortunately drivers will automatically blame the runner even though the car left it's lane and hit a runner. Again all this is assuming he wasn't in the lane.

Concrete sidewalks are also less forgiving surfaces than asphalt. I will opt to run in the road against traffic, but if forced to run with traffic, I'll be up on the sidewalk (if available).

I'm simply pointing out the fact that you stated that "the sidewalk is more risky" while discussing a situation where a man died because he got hit by a car while he was running in the road. Even if there is a greater chance of turning an ankle (breaking an ankle is a bit of a hyperbole I think) from running on the sidewalk, a small ankle injury is nothing compared to death.

Also, headlamps are incredibly effective at improving viability. I use mine all the time. If the one you are using doesn't do an adequate job, I'd guess that it probably doesn't provide enough lumens. Get a stronger headlamp, and you'll see how well they work.

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@davempratt

I'm not a runner, but I live in the area where this happened. The community is pretty saddened by it, but what I think is also sad is the way that so many ideas are tossed around about what this fellow should have done instead. He was a very experienced runner on familiar routes. I'm not reflexively saying the driver is at fault here but it is incumbent on the operator of the ~2 tonne vehicles to bear most of the responsibility since others are most likely to be harmed in a collision. The local media is ripe with plenty of claims that he didn't belong on the road. I thought slowtwitch was a little better than this and I hope the outrage can be directed toward better driver training and awareness that roads are used in multiple acceptable ways.

If breaking an ankle is hyperbole then so is getting hit by a car and dying.

I don't really know why people do it. It irritates the hell out of me. I've come close to hitting some of them especially at night. There is a perfectly good side walk to run on. The road is really cambred too compared to the flat side walk. I just don't get it.
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That's the same argument non cyclists use about riding on the road, even in daylight.

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Train safe & smart
Bob

I get what you are saying...
(probability of X)*(severity of X) vs. (Probability of Y)*(severity of Y)
Sure, dying is worse than an ankle sprain, but you are much more likely at risk to twist your ankle...therefore, you gotta do the risk assessment.
BUT...get a head lamp that works and the probability of twisting your ankle drops to near zero. I use knuckle lights and with two of those I can run (groomed with occasionally rooted) trails in pitch black safely. There are people I run with who have headlamps that blow these away...easily 5 times the light output. Therefore, even running 5 minute pace in pitch black with a good headlamp, you will see as good as daylight.

I'm not sure how it's hyperbole when we're discussing a man who died after getting hit by a car while running in the road.

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@davempratt

They're called accidents for a reason. And with drivers distracted by their cell phones I frequently see cars drift into the biking lane - day and night.

It's most likely the driver's "fault", for whatever that matters to the poor guy who got hit. Very tragic for all involved.

I like to run on the road, but run into traffic, wear light colored/reflective clothing, have reflective bands on my ankles, carry a flashlight, and wear a flashing red light on the back of my shorts. You can see the headlights coming up behind you and can tell if they're on the right side of the road (not always the case). More than a few times I've had to step off the road because oncoming traffic was in the bike lane I was running in - despite my gear and waving my flashlight.

I agree.

Just because someone "shouldn't be there" doesn't give someone a carte blanche to run them down. If you can't see what's in the shadows at night, you're going too fast.

I run in an area where there are few sidewalks/pavements. I stick to back roads as much as possible and run into on coming traffic. The amount of times a young driver has come batting round a blind corner too fast to stop is incredible. We also seem to have an unofficial rule that blowing your horn before barrelling around a blind 90° bend somehow magically makes all other traffic disappear, or at least if you hit something it's not your fault...

Short version, driving faster than a speed that allows you to stop within your visual range is reckless.

Your ankle will heal.

Your death will not heal.

Besides the biggest danger on a sidewalk isn't falling into a hole. When was the last time you saw a hole in a sidewalk? Biggest danger is rolling your ankle on a root rut or someone's sloped driveway. Those are much better then being killed by a car, don't you think?

I do 95% of my running on trails and fields in a big local park where my dog can run off-leash, and the other 5% on an indoor or outdoor track. There are lots of roots on the path, lots of rocks b/c the trail is right next to the river, and potholes in the grass. We've been running there for about 10 yrs, with around 3/4 of our runs in daylight and 1/4 in the dark. I see a number of peeps walking and running there after dark with the headlamp but i've just never felt the need for the lamp. I know where the bad parts are and just try to be sure i'm picking up my feet a little more in those areas. I have tripped and fallen maybe once a year on average, but half of those have occurred in daylight just b/c i got distracted. I've never twisted an ankle or otherwise injured myself in this 10 yr period. If i ran on the roads at night, i might get a headlamp but a reflective vest, belt, and/or jacket works pretty well also. Since i am off-road or on a track all the time, i've just never bothered with the lamp.

One other item that might be of interest: i've spent about 5 yrs on active duty with the Air Force/Army since 9/11, and the services are VERY serious about reflective clothing, to the point that you can get chewed out pretty badly by your boss for a single infraction. The Army requires a lateral reflective belt across the torso, while the AF requires a waist level reflective belt plus the AF PT T-shirt and nylon running jacket both have medium sized reflective AF logos on the left side of the chest, plus huge, 12-18" wide, reflective USAF logos on the back. However, no headlamps required, at least not yet anyway:)

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"Anyone can be who they want to be IF they have the HUNGER and the DRIVE."

Sounds like a good place to run!
However, my point was if someone would rather run on a road than the sidewalk because they more afraid of hard to see cracks than cars, then a head lamp is all it takes to turn night into day.

I am occasionally annoyed running single track trails at night when someone darts around a corner with no light, risking a collision, but eh...I'm sure they are annoyed that my knuckle lights mess up their night vision.

I'm flying to London tomorrow and I typically walk/jog to Hyde Park. Sidewalk the whole way. As an American used to the wrong side of the road, I can't process facing traffic whilst running! A 5k run around Kensington would likely yield a trip to the hospital for me.

Oh, we don't have cctv here much in the US because we are wary of gov't and their prying eyes. But traffic cams do abound. And yes, we generally face traffic while running in the US.

Agreed. Charlottesville is a great town but the locals tend to be anti-runner and hostile to cyclists. I stopped riding on the roads here a few years ago with too many blind corners, overgrown shrubs/trees, and no shoulder. But our Rivanna Trail ring around the city is now up to around 30 miles, I believe. That has tree routes and some mud but it's quite safe for runners. There are also several good county parks for running.