Can I use trail running shoes to run on the road?

Depends on the shoe, but it's probably fine. The tread might wear out a little faster if you're doing a lot of pavement running, but I'm not sure how significant it would be. Can you run in the grass along side the road (not sure where you live or if you even have grass, lol).

I bought my first pair of trail shoes to run on snowy roads, and ended up running more than half the distance on clear asphalt. I retired them at 500 miles out of concern for tread wear, and still use them for mowing the lawn and shoveling snow. Evidence from those activities is that I may have retired them earlier than I needed to.

Those were Saucony Peregrines. I doubt that other brands and models of trail shoes would be built so much worse that a few miles of road will ruin them. Most likely, you get similar results.

lsutton484 wrote: »

I also use trail shoes as snowy road shoes and put lots and lots of dry road miles on them. the tread does wear out faster on pavement. Its also my experience that trail shoes are a bit sturdier and heavier than road shoes.

This.

They might be a touch heavier as well than its counterpart of the same brand.