Nov

9

Road Runner Rage

Filed Under Featured Article 

Earlier this week I was clicking through the New York Times and a headline caught my eye, “Road Runner Rage”. Finally, an article not about bikes and cars, but runners and cars - Man vs. Machine. Being a New York City runner, I have had a few encounters of my own, but nothing remarkable or worth writing about. In fact, I had more interesting surprise interactions with raccoons and horses than cars, but I imagine that I’ve been lucky and was interested in what he had to say. My eyes eagerly devoured the article, which can be found here (Road Runner Rage
By CHRISTOPHER PERCY COLLIER
Published: November 5, 2008)

Overall the article was pretty good. After reading about the driver threatening a young lady with a beer bottle, I was hoping for some good advice or at least what she did to get out of the situation. It was interesting that the article took into account the psychological viewpoints of both the motorist and the runner. I think I understood the point made by the author, but still you need a license to drive and it is the driver’s responsibility to be aware of pedestrians, running or not. As a driver and a runner in New York City I believe it is the responsibility of both parties to be aware of their surroundings. Now, I do have exceptions for those jerks that honk just to scare you, or throw random things at you. More on them later.

Truth be told, I started running while living in Los Angeles and I never had a problem with a car out there. People stop and wave you through. I’m not sure if runners get more respect in Los Angeles, but dealing with cars was an adjustment when I moved out to the east coast, Philadelphia first and then New York. In fact, if the drivers in Los Angeles were as aggressive, I’d probably would have suffered some major injuries. Whenever I go back to Los Angeles, I forget that virtually all the streets have two-way traffic. I got so used to just looking one way, that I almost stepped right in front of cars. Fortunately, none of them ever got mad, just a few warnings to be careful.

It seems that drivers only have two real complaints about runners. First, sometimes they are “hard to see.” Second, runners tend to dart out unexpectedly or jaywalk. These are fair complaints. Here is my advice to runners.

  1. Lose the headphones or turn down the volume a bit. Running without one of your five senses is dangerous. Not being able to hear a car (bike or another runner) makes you a serious hazard.

  2. Don’t run through parking lots. Drivers have limited ability to see runners cutting through a parking lot. I know it is easy to run straight through, but instead run around the cars or take a brisk walk.
  3. Wear reflective clothing. I know that this isn’t new advice, but it is still good advice.

I know that there are still jerks out there driving around. The best road rage story is still Frank Shorter’s. In his biography, he writes about a time that his running group was harassed by some people in a car. If my memory serves me correct, they chased down the car and ran up and over the car like a stampede as it was stopped at a stoplight. I think a similar account was in “Once a Runner” too. I wish the article went into more detail about what the runner did that was threatened by the guy with a beer. I’m not sure what I would do, but it would be nice to have a few ideas to draw from if I’m ever caught in a situation like this. If you got a good story, please share.

Run safe.




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