Since we didn’t get the chance to stop and chat, let me clarify that the horn blast you heard was my way of saying, “Hey, pal, I just kept your worthless ass from becoming a pile of bone and intestines in the middle of the road by stomping hard on my brakes. Perhaps in the future, you may wish to jog with your fucking eyes open so you’ll see that big red hand on that pole there. Oh, you saw it? Well, guess what it means? It means DON’T CROSS THE FUCKING STREET BECAUSE THERE’S A FUCKING CAR COMING AND YOU’RE ABOUT TO FUCKING GET KILLED. Not that I give a shit if you get killed because you’re obviously a fucking worthless piece of shit and the world would be a better place without fucktards like you, but it would probably be bad for my insurance rates.”
I’m assuming that the pair of middle fingers you showed me were not your way of saying, “Hey, thanks for saving my life.”
But don’t you know? Runners can do whatever the hell they like 'cause they are, like, so cool. That includes running in a car lane and having cars go around them because they don’t like running on the sidewalk.
Or maybe they had a momentary mental lapse and were somewhat startled and embarrassed by the sound of your brakes, and the jogger saw your angry horn blast as adding insult to injury, and responded with a hearty “fuck you”.
This is why I refuse to run on anything but a track or a treadmill. Oh, for a lot of other reasons, too, but I never understand when I see people actually running in the street. (Well, I guess the sidewalk is apparently not good for running on?)
As a road runner who logs several thousand miles per year on public roads, I would like to respond by thanking you for not smearing this scumbag all across the pavement. On behalf of all runners everywhere I would like to apologize for this man’s behavior.
I run every day on the roads, and I encounter cars every day. If twice in a year I come across a driver who behaves disourteously or dangerously, that is an unusual year. Most of the time drivers will slow down and give me a comfortable wide berth as they pass. Most of the time cars will slow or even stop if a car is coming in the opposite direction and wait till it passes simply to show me the courtesy of not crowding or endangering.
On hot days I have had people stop and offer me drinks. A couple of times complete strangers have given me rides home when my knee hurt or I pushed myself too hard (letting some big hairy stinky sweaty guy into your car is a pretty nice thing to do.)
I feel very comfortable on the roads out here because 99.999% plus of the drivers are super cool about runners on the road. I am grateful. I realize my running can be an obstacle or an inconvenience.
I hope that you will not judge all runners by this asshole’s behavior. On behalf of all runners everywhere, if you could provide us with an accurate description we will find him, hunt him down, gag him with a 3 year old jockstrap and beat him half to death with his own Saucony running shoes.
Sorry. I know how you feel. That one bad guy can change your whole attitude towards a group. I would implore not to project his behavior onto the many other grateful joggers who appreciate your courtesy and looking out for their safety.
Might I throw into the mix the guy who parked his car on the highway about ten feet past a blind corner that people like myself take at 50 mph and was strolling c? And as an added note, when you hear tires squealing mere feet from your body, the typical response is NOT to speed up to a slow jog for a step and a half, but to MOVE YOUR ASS. Moron.
I was going to rant about why these people have to be on busy roads at all when they could be running on back roads or tracks, but Scylla talked me out of it, mostly. I’d just like to weigh in about mommy-joggers and their pals who take up entire streets with their friends and jogging strollers and glare at you when you attempt to actually drive up the street (at 8:00 in the morning.)
Well, sometimes you have to cross the big road, and sometimes you have to run on it a bit to cross it. I hate it, trust me - I don’t like traffic to see my legs jiggle when I run, even if I did like breathing the exhaust and moving out of the shade. But my neighborhood is too small just to run there.
They have these buttons on the light poles - you can request a light by pressing said buttons.
I tend to run at night:
lower runner density
cooler weather
lower traffic density…
I run against the traffic flow, and generally employ Laws of Physics over Laws or Right-of-Way when there is any doubt. When I am running, anything larger/faster than me gets RoW when there is any doubt.
My working assumption when driving near bikers or runners is that they will at some point rapidly cross my path.
My working assumption when running is that drivers will try to run me over/down at some point.
These assumptions rarely come to fruition, but force me to act defensively and I am safer for it. I also annoy (and am annoyed by) fewer drivers/runners.
What does this even mean? That there might be an alternative explanation? Hrm, who would make that point? Oh yeah, I would.
Look, there are at least two ways to interpret the jogger’s actions. He might have just assumed that he had the right of way and that cars would stop as he ran right out in front of them.
OR, stay with me here, he might have had a mental moment, and forgot to look, just like every one of us has pulled some similar stupid stunt while driving or walking or whatever.
In the second instance, he might have been embarrassed by his lapse, as well as startled and a bit shaken. When he hears some fuckass leaning on the horn (because that’s going to help the issue and keep the situation cool), it’s not inconceivable that his “my bad” moment might turn the corner into “Fuck off, you goddamn jackass”. There was a GQ thread about this phenomenon, so it’s not that farfetched.
And to be honest, I’d call it justified, because blaring the horn at the guy (who is presumably only a few yards away) and fuming about the incident long enough to get online and post a rant about it might just be overreacting. The jogger might have just been an asshole, true. But there might be another story. Given the OP’s incredible anger and vituperation, I’m betting on my theory.
It’s funny how you’re willing to explain away the jogger’s anger as a possible involuntary response to embarrassment, and yet you’re apparently completely unwilling to excuse the OP’s anger, despite the fact that it might, just as plausibly, be the result of having the shit scared out of him at the possibility of running over and killing another human being.
I jog on the streets in my neighborhood here in San Diego, and i’m very conscious of the fact that running out onto the road without looking is a fucking dangerous thing to do, so i don’t do it. I’m not saying that i never jaywalk (jayrun?), but when i cross against the light, or in the middle of the block, i do so in full knowledge that cars are not expecting me to be there, and that i need to be very careful.
I’m a huge advocate of pedestrians’ rights, and i hate drivers who blow through stop signs and crosswalks, and who fail to yield to the WALK sign at traffic lights. But people on foot have to use the roads responsibly too, if for no other reason than that they would prefer not to end up pancakes on the asphalt.
You realize why horns are put in cars, right? No, it’s not to honk at the asshole in front of you who didn’t notice that the light turned green (though this is a handy fringe use). Horns are in cars so that people who perhaps didn’t see your car hear this loud, blaring thing and can GET OUT OF THE FUCKING WAY OF TWO TONS OF PLASTIC AND STEEL. Honking your horn when you’re about to hit a pedestrian is a fucking courtesy, not a dick move. Sheesh.
I think I’d prefer that a driver simply use the brakes and steering wheel to avoid a collision instead of wasting time honking. If your first instinct in an emergency is to hit the horn, I’m glad you aren’t driving near me, and it’s not like this guy was going to roll out of the way or some other stupid shit from an action movie.
Also, I’m willing to bet quite a lot that the honking happened after the danger was over and was more an expression of the OP’s anger.
Sheesh, indeed. Fuckwit.
I didn’t dismiss the possibility. But getting on a message board and posting about the guy being a waste of fucking life who deserves to be killed but it would be too big of an insurance hit kinda moots the point.
I have a question: why run in the street? if there is nobody on the sidewalk, why not run on it?
I see this stuff ever day, and I wonder-do these joggers have a deathwish?
ralph124c, I just saw that about ten minutes ago. Was driving home, it’s still dark here, and this woman is jogging in the street in the bike lane. There’s a perfectly good, almost brand new, sidewalk right next to her. Either she’s really stupid or she wants to die.