"IS JOGGING ON ROADS SAFE?

Driving at a steady pace along one of the busiest roads in my neighborhood, I drive up a hill, where I am temporarily blinded since at the very top of the hill, the road makes a sharp descent downhill. At this point, while I drive up the hill at a leisurely pace, my mind drifting away from work, as I head home, I am not thinking about avoiding the next jogger or pedestrian that may pop up as the road curves downward.

But as I have learned, joggers routinely make this particular road their favorite and it never fails that one of them pops into view coming toward me as I drive up and down that main road.
I have always wondered why they put themselves in such a dangerous situation. In fact, this particular road has no shoulder, much less a sidewalk for any one to be trudging along on foot. This behavior is just daring an accident to happen.

Jogging is a term used for exercising at a slow, and steady pace. Jogging is meant to increase fitness of the body with less stress than the from a faster form of jogging, called running. By chosing to jog on a road, the definition of jogging is lost. If jogging is meant to relax the body, destress the body and enable one to become or stay fit, then, by creating an arena where one is unable to truly relax, the individual is not fully relaxed and is therefore not jogging at all.

Just as roads are a place for vehicles to travel, and not for people, sidewalks are meant for people, not for cars or larger vehicles. If larger vehicles were to occupy sidewalks as well, this would also cause a significant amount of disruption.

Even if joggers play it safe, and try to do the right things on a road, such as jogging on the "wrong side of the road" to oncoming traffic; wearing bright clothing; careful to not run in the center of the road; careful to jog at the right time of day, and not at the twilight hours, where it is tough to see; the road is still not a safe place.
Even with taking every precaution, joggers can be and are hit by cars, and traffic, which is completely out of the jogger's control. Traffic accidents on the road are enormous. Just turn on the radio every morning and you will see for yourself how many accidents occur on the road. Adding runners on the road will increase fatal traffic accidents dramatically.

There is no true study to date on traffic accidents involving runners in particular. The US Census has reports of Pedestrians involved in traffic accidents and some of them may be runners. The most common running or jogging injuries occur from falls and from Cardiovascular problems. Jogging and running injuries on the road have occured and do occur, however the statistics have not be studied.

Avoiding jogging on roads could help to make our roads safer for all of us!