Leaving my parents’ house tonight, I drive down a road which is fairly well-lit at night. Most of the time. Tonight, a few lights were out. It doesn’t bother me, I don’t live there and my headlights on my truck are working fine. It’s a typical suburban neighborhood with sloping curbs, and a sidewalk wide enough where two people can walk side-by-side.
As I tool on down the road, I notice a red flashing light off in the distance, to my right. It must be a jogger, I think. As I drove closer, I begin to see a woman speed-walking (or whatever you call it), and she has the red flashing LED headband, and reflective tape on her shoes.
What flabbergasted me, is that she is doing her thing not on the sidewalk, but at least a foot and a half onto the blacktop. I mean, she’s facing oncoming traffic, but…W(hy)TF take such an unnecessary risk by being so far out on the road? There’s a sidewalk for her use not more than three feet away. I’ve walked past that section where she was walking, and to the best of my knowledge there are no dogs owned by any of the people living there. If there are, they are behind a fence, and we also have a leash law (I think).
I just thought, “Wow, I’m sober, and I didn’t have an easy time seeing her. What if some drunk fuck happened to drive near her and accidently hit her with his/her car?”
Why do people do stupid things like this? WTF does she think the sidewalk is for? For fucking looks?
I would guess that the road surface is smoother, no gutters or driveways to contend with, and that she figures that (being dark) she will see oncoming cars long before they get to her and have time to move up onto the sidewalk while they pass.
At least she is wearing reflective clothing - I have seen people doing the same thing in dark shirt and pants…
Well, she didn’t move as I passed her…I made an effort to move a bit to the left. The area where she was, I’ve walked it many times before, and the sidewalk is as smooth as it can get.
Avoiding a car coming at you at 35-40 mph, well, I’ve never been in that situation, but I’ll take a WAG that it isn’t as easy as it might seem, especially if that person is drunk.
I mean, she obviously cares about her health if she’s jogging, but I’ll venture to say that she isn’t going to be very healthy if someone runs her over.
Asphalt is ‘softer’ on the joints then concrete. Also has less irragularities. Unless it’s a busy road I would (and do) walk on the asphalt. I figure walking on the sidewalk has more unnessary risk. Tripping on uneven or cracked ‘squares’, branches plus lower visibility plus possible risk to joints vs. greater (but still remote) risk of being hit by a car.
