RUNNERS: Road or Sidewalk ?

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  • JTick
    JTick Posts: 2,131 Member
    Road. There are no sidewalks where I live. I wear a construction vest and hat along with a road ID. Our roads are flat and straight here, so if a driver appears to not see me I get on the grass. I also run on the grass through curves where visibility is poor, but the route I use only has a couple curves in it.
  • Sabine_Stroehm
    Sabine_Stroehm Posts: 19,251 Member
    Road. There are no sidewalks where I live. I wear a construction vest and hat along with a road ID. Our roads are flat and straight here, so if a driver appears to not see me I get on the grass. I also run on the grass through curves where visibility is poor, but the route I use only has a couple curves in it.
    This. I wear a cycling jacket, and bright yellow hat and road ID. and I face traffic. Usually at first light. If it's darker, I wear a flashing light.
  • Sabine_Stroehm
    Sabine_Stroehm Posts: 19,251 Member
    I always run on city streets/rural roads. Sidewalks sucks. Typically very rough and uneven. My 5 mile rural loop is blacktop and oil and chip surface. Awesome to run on. And I always run into traffic. I cycle with traffic, as is proper.
    Exactly. cycle WITH traffic, run facing traffic.
  • AllonsYtotheTardis
    AllonsYtotheTardis Posts: 16,947 Member
    I try to avoid running on concrete whenever I can. It's a lot harder on the knees and other joints, than running on asphalt.
    I hear this all the time but I never really agreed with it. It is true that concrete is about 5 times harder (or more dense) than asphalt, but the energy absorbed by either of them is so miniscule I don't think it will really matter. That's just my theory though, I don't have any scientific data to back it up. But I figure I have a better chance of getting hit by a car running in the road than hurting my knees because I'm running on concrete instead of asphalt.

    OK, maybe I should have been more clear. It's a lot harder on MY knees and other joints. I'm not in pain when I run on asphalt. if I run on concrete, I pay for it, for several days afterwards. I don't give a rats *kitten* about studies on this subject - I'm going to avoid doing things that are clearly causing my body harm.

    As for safety - I choose roads that don't have a lot of traffic (it's all residential, and mostly sidestreets)

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