In california, pretty much we always ran against traffic. On the sidewalk, but sometimes on the shoulder if there was no shoulder.
Now I’ve moved to rhode island and everyone seems to run on the same direction of traffic? Seems just odd, because you could get hit in the rear?
But then again, I could get hit head on too.
What say the forum?
Run against traffic. Always.
Against.
Always against traffic. I prefer keep an eye on the coming traffic.
always against (facing)
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always against, especially if running in the shoulder
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Depends on the road. I try to run in the middle where the road is flattest (when the route safely permits).
I’m in CA and always run against traffic, whether I’m on the shoulder or sidewalk. I like to see what’s about to hit me - gives me a fighting chance of getting out of the way.
Huh.
I always run with, but maybe now, I’ll run against. I guess I did because I biked with. I can’t bike against, now can I…
Against. You want to see your Grim Reaper when he gets you–not by surprise.
Always run against and bike with. the only caveat to this was back in my HS cross county days we would cross over if we came to a steep hill where the driver would not be able to see us at the crest.
i run against and ride against. but im way out in cornfield land where i may see one or two cars in a two hour ride. people tend to not pay much attention when cruising in the country. i want to see them coming incase i need to pull off the road.
It’s run against, ride with. I’m pretty sure I read an article a while back that explained why…something to do with the physics of the whole deal.
Let’s say you are traveling at 20mph on your bike and you get hit from behind by a car doing 40mph. Physics wise, that’s much, much different than getting hit head on at 40mph.
I think the run against is so you can keep an eye on traffic.
Kevin
A girl from our Master’s group got hit from behind this month. Not sure of all the details, but I heard the driver had the sun in his eyes and stated he couldn’t see her. You can’t help but wonder if she could have avoided it had she seen it coming. I guess I try to always put myself in a position of being safe, but sometimes we take risks and sometimes we pay the price for that risk.
chris
I run with the traffic. I am not affraid to get hit from behind on the bike, so why be affraid if I run. Against the traffic creates just very weird situations. A few weeks ago I was approached by a runner and a car while I was on the bike. I had to do the emergency braking, because the runner was on my side.
Also the curves in forests and cities with walkers on the opposit side of the road are dangerous here. They feel safe, but they forget that approaching traffic is not expecting them on the other side of the curve cause they have not seen anything going in the curve in front of them.
And again, I do not see at all why a car would hit me from behind when I am running/walking and not while biking.
I used to always run against traffic - until I got lower leg overuse injuries from the constant angle of the road. (side to side, for water drainage).
Now I run out and back; one way against, one way with. I’ll pick the side of the road typically based on which direction has lighter car traffic.
I alternate. I try to run against traffic on heavier traffic roads and add enough side roads in where I can safely run WITH traffic to reduce teh effects of camber injuries.
Always against traffic.
The exception to this is a shared use bike path, in which all users are considered of the same type, so everyone is headed the same direction on the same side of the path.
I always run against car traffic. When on trails I run and ride on the right side. I noticed some people though do run against the biking and running traffic on the trails, is that normal?
Well I try as much as I can to run in the middle actually (of course assuming no traffic but I live in the country side) & sometimes I will alternate against/with to avoid overuse. However a good chunck of the time is against.
Fred.