Why do runners, run in the road against traffic?

When driving it sometimes seems more dangerous for runners to be running against the traffic. It reduces available braking time/distance because of the approaching speed.

Also, if it’s not safe to overtake them due to oncoming traffic, a corner or a blind summit, then you have to stop before they reach you, and you may not be able to give them enough room to pass. If they’re running with the traffic you can provide them with shelter from following vehicles, and sit back until it’s safe to overtake them.

So, I prefer them to be walking/running with the traffic, and I think it’s what I do myself, although I would change sides to ensure visibility on corners etc.

So, I prefer them to be walking/running with the traffic, and I think it’s what I do myself, although I would change sides to ensure visibility on corners etc.

So, you do it wrong.

And you would prefer it, if everyone else did it wrong too.

No thanks.

I don’t think there’s a right or a wrong way – it’s just that in a lot of cases it’s safer to travel with the traffic.

it’s just that in a lot of cases it’s safer to travel with the traffic.

For whom and on what basis do you make that assertion…?

Not that it matters massively to me as I’m one of Binners’s wild eyed, imaginary friends, fell runners but the few short sections of road I occasionally have cause to run on, I know which way I’d go and it’d certainly not be your preference, because of what the roads, and a lot of the drivers (oblivious tourists, staring at the fells/lakes/sheep/clouds) who use them, are like.

When driving it sometimes seems more dangerous for runners to be running against the traffic. It reduces available braking time/distance because of the approaching speed.

Yeah, cos runners are dead fast and you might not be able to react in time due to their amazing speed, heavens above!

Also, if it’s not safe to overtake them due to oncoming traffic, a corner or a blind summit, then you have to stop before they reach you, and you may not be able to give them enough room to pass. If they’re running with the traffic you can provide them with shelter from following vehicles, and sit back until it’s safe to overtake them.

Its called being aware, things on roads dont just appear out of nowhere, just drivers seem to think they only have to do anything about it when they are 3ft from the situation. Look ahead, see the situation that might occur, act accordingly, its not hard.

It’s so you can see their expression when they bounce off the bonnet of your car!

OK being serious now I would imagine the thinking behind the HC rule is so they can see you coming and also it would be easier for a driver to pick them up in the headlights, as you would probably see eye shine and if they are carrying a torch will have it pointing forwards, as this will probably be in rural unlit areas.

If they’re running with the traffic you can provide them with shelter from following vehicles, and sit back until it’s safe to overtake them.

And another thing… How many drivers have you experienced/seen doing that for roadies? Given the impatience shown for road bikes (all too often talked about on here…), which can potentially be travelling at not much less speed than a car, depending on the road, how do you think that’d work for a runner travelling at c6-8mph?!

Sorry, I’m not really asserting a fact. It’s just that, as I described above, and as someone else mentioned, there are times when it seems safer to run with the traffic in terms of visibility, braking distances, stumbling room, road positioning, and protection.

Obviously, as a driver one must be mindful of pedestrians and runners, and drive safely and courteously no matter which side of the road they’re on, or the direction in which they’re travelling.

If they’re running with the traffic you can provide them with shelter from following vehicles, and sit back until it’s safe to overtake them.

nah what’s more likely to happen is driver A hugs the kerb until the last second then swerves out around the runner, driver B who was following a bit too close and isn’t concentrating then hits the runner. Atleast with the official “run against the flow of traffic” the runner can see what is happening. I presume a bit of thought went into this before they put it in the HC

it sometimes seems more dangerous for runners to be running against the traffic. It reduces available braking time/distance because of the approaching speed.

with all due respect that’s piffle (unless it’s usain bolt doing sprint practice the runner speed will be sod all in comparison to what the car will be doing)

STATO – Member
Its called being aware, things on roads dont just appear out of nowhere, just drivers seem to think they only have to do anything about it when they are 3ft from the situation. Look ahead, see the situation that might occur, act accordingly, its not hard.

Likewise the pedestrian and runner is on that side of the road so that they can *act accordingly*. Pedestrians usually do, most runners in my experience will do absolutely nothing about the situation other than continue to run towards the traffic. I don’t mind having to stop if overtaking is not possible, and if possible I stop with plenty of room. Fine. I do mind the dirty look and knocking wing mirrors as they try to squeeze past.

Its called being aware, things on roads dont just appear out of nowhere

Actually they do, and runners do if you are going round a corner, not particularly fast and are on the look out for anything you may have to stop for round the corner, but still you have little time when rounding the corner and there’s a runner coming towards you with no intention of stopping. Braking distance is reduced further as they continue to run towards you. As a walker at a bend on a road I am very wary of oncoming traffic and try to keep out of danger or let traffic see me.

Highway code states, for pedestrians at least…

“It may be safer to cross the road well before a sharp right-hand bend so that oncoming traffic has a better chance of seeing you. Cross back after the bend.”

Runners don’t do this in my experience.

Runners don’t do this in my experience.

Well that would add seconds when on a Strava run !

It’s just that, as I described above, and as someone else mentioned, there are times when it seems safer to run with the traffic in terms of visibility, braking distances, stumbling room, road positioning, and protection.

Obviously if there’s a big, wide pavement on one side of the road, and nothing but a narrow grass verge on the other, then what you say will be the case. But assuming both sides are in similar condition it’s a lot safer to run or walk against the traffic.

A couple of years ago there was a case of a teenage girl left in a wheelchair after a road accident: night, dark clothes with her hood up and headphones in, on a country road with no lighting. She was walking in the direction of traffic, and didn’t hear the car that hit her. If she’d be walking against the traffic she would have seen it, and would quite possibly have had time to avoid it.

“It may be safer to cross the road well before a sharp right-hand bend so that oncoming traffic has a better chance of seeing you. Cross back after the bend.”

Runners don’t do this in my experience.

I doubt many walkers do it, either. The problem I can see with this advice is that it means you have to cross the road, despite not being able to see what’s coming round the corner.

I’ve been doing a bit of running recently while I had no bikes.
Where safe, I would run on the road as I got fed up with uneven pavement surfaces, crossovers and close encounters of the turd kind. However in a busy traffic area, the path would always win.

Having tried running for 6 weeks though, I have to agree with the below

Lets be brutally honest here… have you ever seen a runner look like they’re enjoying the experience? Have you ever seen one smile? Even slightly? Ever seen one not grimacing?

For me, I couldn’t wait for the run to finish the second after I’d started. Riding my bike I don’t want to stop. On a bike I feel teh awesumz. Running, I just feel like a middle aged fat knacker.

@binners, that made my chuckle, thanks 😀

Lets be brutally honest here… have you ever seen a runner look like they’re enjoying the experience? Have you ever seen one smile? Even slightly? Ever seen one not grimacing?

I only grimace a bit 🙂

Here’s a happy runner:

That runner is clearly only happy because she is about to stop running.

1. I’m only doing this to get out of the house, away from a wife and kids who despise me. If I don’t, I’m so pathetically brow-beaten, I’ll only be forced to watch the Eastenders omnibus again, uncomplaining, while building up a seething, potentially murderous resentment that can only end with a new patio. I’m going to run in the road, towards traffic instead.

This is me …. 😳

I was halfway through typing a great long post about how I run on the road and its fine… I just get out of the way when cars are appoarching from both directions etc etc and I was going to write about the drivers that worry about runners on the road, I wonder what that do when any thing happens at a higher speed than a runner… When I realised….

Just use your common

I used to run a bit before I did my back in (and started doing a proper sport/exercise/whatever). Problem with pavements at night is they’re very uneven and street lighting creates deep shadow ‘pools’ in the dips. You can’t actually see whether it’s deep enough to twist an ankle or whether it’s just the light.

I used to run on the road a lot because of that but always jump on the pavement whilst a car went past.

When walking/running with the traffic on the left you are assuming that the drivers are actually paying attention and as cyclists we all know they do, right? By walking/running against the traffic at least you have some control over your own safety.

“If there is no pavement, keep to the right-hand side of the road so that you can see oncoming traffic.”

Taken from the following

https://www.gov.uk/rules-pedestrians-1-to-35/general-guidance-1-to-6

I don’t think there’s a right or a wrong way

If that was actually the case, then it would say so in the Highway Code.

But it doesn’t, it tells you the right way.

nealglover – Member
But it doesn’t, it tells you the right way

For walking.

Wow! running in the road is very common. Most of the local club run on the road and not the pavement.
It’s obviously so that they can get a good run. I drive/cycle towards them and it’s about a billisecond of inconvenience. AND I’m a right old fashioned kerb hugging roadie.
For the right on right in the middle of the road modern day cyclist surely a gutter hugging runner isn’t a problem what with us being a metre out and all that.

Pavements are shit to run on aren’t they to be fair.