Why do people jog in the street when the sidewalk is 3 feet away????

This makes me so mad because I always have to swerve around these idiots who jog against traffic on a road when there is a perfectly good sidwalk just a few feet away that is completely empty.

I know it's a minor issue but it's just a snippet of what's wrong with the US these days. People think they're so important and too good for the sidewalk, so they insert themselves into everyone else's lives, and make people react to their idiotic behavior rather than just living like a normal f'ing person.

Sorry to vent, I just don't get why people can't live their lives without intruding into mine when there is a specific thing there to keep them out of my freaking way.

someone please explain the need to walk, jog or run in the street when there is a sidewalk.

joints than asphalt. My personal opinion, though, is that if running is bad for your joints, why are these health nuts doing it?

Also, at least in my area, the sidewalks are in such poor shape that you would probably trip and fall over uneven cracks and crumbling concrete as well as shrubs and trees growing out into the way of the sidewalk.

But I agree with you, just get out of my way. You are a traffic hazard.

than the sidewalk...but today, brand new subdivision, perfect sidewalks, skinny streets, yet a jogger feels the need to make us all slam on our breaks and swerve around them when we come across this person out of the blue.

Thanks for the support :)

Concrete got the worst rating. Even if you don't jog, try running on both. You'll notice a difference. I suspect concrete also offers less traction.

I really don't get the whole "the road is for pedestrians and cyclists, too" mentality. Sure, if it's safe, both should coabide. But when flesh and car collide, the flesh is going to lose, even if it had the right-of-way. Aside from ego and the control-freak rush that comes from making a car swerve, what's the point?

And for full disclosure, I drive a car, ride a bike, and jog (not at the same time). I jog on the sidewalk (and it's not that much of a difference, if you have decent shoes), and choose bike routes that don't put me in front of a line of 85 cars.

with someone on a bicycle as long as they are following traffic laws, as I understand that sidewalks may not be as safe for them with different levels of concrete and stuff, also there could be pedestrians on the sidewalk, so anything that leaves the sidewalk open to walkers/joggers I'm likely to be for, again, as long as they are following all of the same laws applicable to cars. :)

My grandfather owned a bike shop in New Orleans before I was born. I was building bicycles when I was ten, and have ridden them off and on my whole life, so I come at this as someone who has ridden bikes longer than he's driven cars, and who has at times been something of a cycling activist.

Taking a lane on a boulevard where the speed limit is 45 shouldn't be legal. I get the whole "Share the road" thing, but bikes and cars can't really share the road when a bike can't maintain a speed that keeps traffic flowing, and a bike can't survive a collision with a car when things go wrong. I almost killed someone a few months ago--she was riding on the same boulevard, in the dark, on a bike without lights, and she was in the center of the lane doing under 10. I was doing under 40. I came around a curve behind another car, and he swerved at the last moment (she was hidden by the curve) and there she was, just sitting in front of me, peddling like an idiot who thinks the entire world will die to protect her. I braked hard and swerved around her--lucky it was at night, because there was nothing in the other lane.

Granted, she was breaking a few laws by riding without lighting, but the mentality lately amongst cyclists is that all cars must yield to them no matter what. I see cyclists riding the wrong way down the center of a lane on a highway service road, or riding the right way when the speed limit is 50 or more. I see them in the center of the lane when they don't have to be (which is technically illegal--a bike is only allowed to take the lane when it is impossible to ride along the curb). I see them blowing through stoplights and stop signs without a glance. I had a guy a couple years ago barely miss plowing into me because he didn't stop.

Cars will yield to them when it's possible, but when they ride like that (and they do here in Austin) there's often nothing a car can do. Austin has bike routes everywhere, they have neighborhood streets, they have wide sidewalks made for walking and biking in most places, they have extremely wide shoulders on most rural roads. There's no reason for a bike to have to ride on high speed roadways in the center of the lane. It's gone from cars being inconsiderate of bikes to bikes being inconsiderate of all human beings. Not all bikes, of course, not by a long shot. But enough to kill people. Plenty enough.

nearly mow me down *everyday* when I'm on the *sidewalk* leave a bad impression too. Centers of the universe, they are. :eyes:

The were simply comparing the effect of several different surfaces on the joints. I'm pretty sure the target audience didn't need a study to tell them being hit by a car could hurt.

When I ran, I avoided streets AND sidewalks, but I've never had a problem avoiding bikes or runners when I drive. However, concrete was noticeably the harder surface, especially at faster rates.

Bicyclists are required to be in the road and are supposed to be in the travel lane in many instances (like when there is little or no paved shoulder and when they're preparing to make a left turn.) While I also try to bicycle on routes where I won't interfere with the speed of the cars using the road it really isn't my responsibility to keep the travel lane clear for car travelers. I'd be happier if the laws required dedicated bicycle lanes, but they don't and we need to SHARE the road more often than not.

Most of the car swerving isn't the fault of the pedestrian or bicyclist -- it's the impatient driver who thinks the speed limit for the road is a minimum speed. Local roads are meant to be shared with slower moving vehicles and pedestrians.

Joggers, as pedestrians, are subject to the same rules and should be on sidewalks when they're provided, but if there's no sidewalk or consistent, walkable shoulder joggers DO belong in the travel lane.

when there is a perfectly good sidewalk available.

Perhaps it's time to change the law to where you're allowed to hit them.

but I refrain.

here in Austin. All the way along this road is a sidewalk that would be perfectly legal and safe to ride the bike on. A block over there is a neighborhood street going the same direction, where cars aren't traveling at 45 mph, and therefore aren't likely to run up behind a ten mph bike and kill the kid in the trailer before they even realize dumbass is there. But dumbass takes the lane.

just will not think things through. It's all about ME ME ME ME ME.

but only on very quiet side streets.
We live in a very small town, lots of old neighborhoods.
The sidewalks are not in the best of repair - very uneven, cracks, holes etc. If you are not watching closely you could easily break an ankle.
Streets are much more level and better maintained. If there is a hole, it can usually be avoided.
I would always run opposite traffic so I could easily jump out of the way if needed.
Did I mention the curbs? Not fun to be jumping up on those every block.

after school, there are kids walking up to 6 across on both sides of the street, keeping anyone else from getting by.

It does bother me, partly because I wonder what kind of drivers they will be if they consider that safe, and partly because of the arrogance.

When I ride my bike and come across a jogger coming down the street in the wrong direction that makes me mad too, because I am expected to swerve into a lane of traffic to give them space, when they have a sidewalk they could use.

Cycling on the sidewalk is legal but dangerous because they are in such bad condition.

The main problem is how the city is set up. Lots of dead ends and streets with hills, so there are very few that actually go through to somewhere. Therefore, everyone ends up on the same streets because to try to avoid them would literally add miles to your jog or bike ride.

.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
...it's the asphalt.
.
.
.

My worth brush with these idiots was driving up Rt. 58. It's a winding 2-lane road with no shoulder that's cut through the rolling hills of southwestern Connecticut. And being Connecticut, it is surrounded by trees that come up right to the edge of the pavement, and thus the edge of the road (the foot or two between the white line and the edge of the tarmac) is always full of debris such as branches and tree limbs, and houses are few and far between.

So I was cruising up towards Danbury in morning traffic. Moving well, maybe 40 mph, in a solid line of cars. Rt. 58 has very few stop signs or traffic lights on it, so we were all just flowing nicely north.

All of a sudden, the Volkswagon in front of me veers sharply to the left, almost crossing the double yellow line and into opposing traffic. Instinctively, I did so as well, and probably every single car behind me did.

The culprit?


A jogger pushing a sport stroller (3-wheeled with oversized knobby tires) along the white line.


And she had a length of a fairly stout tree branch in her left hand, and had that arm fully extended out into traffic. Just, yanno, so the cars would give her plenty of clearance.


No blaze orange, no strobe lights, no reflective tape. Nothing. Just sweatpants and sweatshirt on a gray drizzly day under a heavy forest canopy.


I hope to this day that the mirror of a car or pickup clipped that branch, whipped it around, and smashed that jogger in the face so that she would learn a lesson before her and her kid were turned into salsa and the poor slob that smeared them was seeing a psychiatrist for a decade.

It might be because a sidewalk isn't flat - there are dips where the driveways are.

Everybody's happy.

It is, at least, where I live. I recently started running and asked that question of my instructor, and, after having been out now for awhile, I have to agree. That said, I am always on the lookout for cars and act accordingly. I don't expect them to be responsible for my safety.

I'm just sayin'!! :hi: :hi: :hi:

Trails are very forgiving, and way more fun, so that's the way to go if you can.

Two weeks ago, some guy was riding his riding on the side of road. It was a narrow road and there wasn't much of a shoulder so he was actually in the road. He knew he was blocking the lane and acted as if it was ok. People were going into the turn lane to get around him. When he got to the light, there were 3 lanes (left turn only, straight, right turn only) and he was going down the middle lane to go straight as if he was in a car. It was odd. There was a sidewalk so it made no sense for him to be in the road.

They are technically vehicles so they are allowed on the streets. I do see a lot of cyclists disobeying traffic laws, however.

ride bikes in front of me when there is a bike lane or turn without blinkers etc. I don't always do it, I take into account the circumstances however it does give me an enormous amount of relief and I am convinced by their evil looks that it really got their attention and that I was probably right.

I simply yell the worst word I know. REPUBLICAN!

Try it. It helped me.

If you can't handle hopping up and down off curbs, you probably aren't in good enough shape for running anyway.

You sound just like me. I hate dealing with people too, especially when I'm on the way home. When I'm on the way home, I consider that MY time. At that point, I'm done being nice for the day, dammit. Time to sneer at the world, take everything off and get comfortable. Then some asshole tries to earn a Darwin Award that I'm not allowed to give them...without going to jail. x(

finally got out of the house to run some errands, and this idiot is running toward me in my lane, on a 4 lane road!! Two lanes - median - two lanes. Sidewalks on both sides!>!> :)

Oh well, thanks for the support :)

they are so fast they belong in traffic. I see it every so often near where I live. The culprit sharing the road with my car is always tricked out in a unitard and a fancy bike helmet so I know they consider themselves serious bikers.