This Simple Rule Of The Road Can Save Your Life

A study out of Finland shows that one common mistake puts you at a very high risk of danger when running on the roads. It all has to do with which way you are facing traffic when you run. If there is a sidewalk that is, of course, the safest place to be (however you can also take a fall with all the cracks and uneven surfaces), but should you be running on the shoulder, this is an important reminder that you should always run against traffic. The reason is simple, you can't react to something you can't see. Facing traffic, you can react quicker to a wayward, or distracted driver. Jean Knaack, executive director of the Road Runners Club of America, encourages runners to go against traffic. "Running against traffic allows you to see incoming vehicles and to react to them," she says. "If your back is to incoming traffic, you're far less likely to react if a car is not giving you an adequate right of way." This is something to take seriously. There are 122,000 accidents annually just in the US involving cars and runners. 4,000 runners annually are killed by cars just in the US.

posted Saturday March 31st