running on country roads

Ceepo

walshb wrote: »

But I wouldn't run on a motorway. I just said that I'd take my chances moreso (if I had to) on a hard shoulder than on a narrow country road. I am talking about safety, not being arrested.

As for common sense? What is this, really? You can be as careful as you like, but you are still far too close to cars to be in safety. As careful as you are you cannot legistalte for the cars.

You take two cars from either direction travelling at 50-80 kph on a narrow road and then add in a runner to the equation. It is pretty dangerous. There is very little space on some these roads for the cars alone. The slightest adjustment needed by a car could see carnage.

Sorry if I picked you up wrong there.

Common sense, cant answer that one i'm afraid as some people common sense is different to others.

Of course that could be a dangerous situation, but you could name another 10 or 20 into that as well if you wanted to.

I suppose if you look at satistics, they would show a very low amount of runners been hit by traffic. Done even know if there are any satisics but antidotally you would never hear of any been hit if that is anything to go by.

Probably down to a personal choice, and I for one am happy to stay running on the roads, even in the dark

mossym

walshb wrote: »

As for common sense? What is this, really? You can be as careful as you like, but you are still far too close to cars to be in safety. As careful as you are you cannot legistalte for the cars.
.

you could then say you should never run anywhere there are cars, crossing a road at a pedestrian crossing might not be safe if one broke the lights, which you cannot legislate for.

you could turn this on it's head, and say you should never run in a city cause you never know if a bunch of scumbags will just decide to kick the cr£p out of you for no reason when you run past.

how do you avoid that? you run in what you think are safer areas. does that remove the threat completely? no, but it helps

same running on country roads, some are worse than others . you avoid the worst. but i guarantee you one thing, i'll show you country roads that are a lot safer than some of the roads you can run down in a city. and i know which i'd run on.

RoyMcC

mossym wrote: »

same running on country roads, some are worse than others . you avoid the worst. but i guarantee you one thing, i'll show you country roads that are a lot safer than some of the roads you can run down in a city. and i know which i'd run on.

Of course that's right. It's really about the opportunity to get away from roads altogether. And in the Irish countryside there are limited opportunities to get off-road. Sure, there are some magnificent trails but generally the rights-of-way and bridleways over uncultivated land are far and few between. Legislation in England and Wales has opened up many more opportunities for safe off-roading.

Puck

OP, aside from all of the other advice here can I just warn you to be careful of cars towing trailers or lines of cars travelling close together. If the road is very narrow (like some of the roads I run on) and you have to keep in on the grass to let cars pass even when they're coming from behind you, you might be tempted to move back out onto the road as soon as the car passes you. The car might pass you but if it's towing a trailer you could easily get clipped by it as you relax for a split second when you see the car has passed you.

plodder

RoyMcC wrote: »

Of course that's right. It's really about the opportunity to get away from roads altogether. And in the Irish countryside there are limited opportunities to get off-road. Sure, there are some magnificent trails but generally the rights-of-way and bridleways over uncultivated land are far and few between. Legislation in England and Wales has opened up many more opportunities for safe off-roading.

I live in a rural area myself and run a lot at weekends with no problems at all. Ireland has possibly the largest network of small and quiet roads (per head of population) in Europe. So, I'd say in most rural areas there are safe places to run. But, there's no question it is dangerous in some places.

Totally agree with you about rights-of-way and the like here. There doesn't seem to be the political will to tackle that problem unfortunately.

ultrapercy

mossym wrote: »

you could then say you should never run anywhere there are cars, crossing a road at a pedestrian crossing might not be safe if one broke the lights, which you cannot legislate for.

you could turn this on it's head, and say you should never run in a city cause you never know if a bunch of scumbags will just decide to kick the cr£p out of you for no reason when you run past.

how do you avoid that? you run in what you think are safer areas. does that remove the threat completely? no, but it helps

same running on country roads, some are worse than others . you avoid the worst. but i guarantee you one thing, i'll show you country roads that are a lot safer than some of the roads you can run down in a city. and i know which i'd run on.

This is very true and when you weigh up the danger of country traffic against the threat of killer cows you may be safer on the road anyhow!

walshb

mossym wrote: »

you could then say you should never run anywhere there are cars, crossing a road at a pedestrian crossing might not be safe if one broke the lights, which you cannot legislate for.

you could turn this on it's head, and say you should never run in a city cause you never know if a bunch of scumbags will just decide to kick the cr£p out of you for no reason when you run past.

how do you avoid that? you run in what you think are safer areas. does that remove the threat completely? no, but it helps

same running on country roads, some are worse than others . you avoid the worst. but i guarantee you one thing, i'll show you country roads that are a lot safer than some of the roads you can run down in a city. and i know which i'd run on.

Yes, no mater where you run there will be some element of danger. But you can help yourself. Where I live I would never run on the roads. They are winding, narrow and some have no footpaths off the road. I would never choose them. I run around the area on the paths. Sure, I could encounter danger, a dog, a person etc, but the risk on an open road (narrow) is IMO far greater to my life.

Krusty_Clown

plodder wrote: »

Ireland has possibly the largest network of small and quiet roads (per head of population) in Europe.

I believe it's actually official, based on Google's mapping project, some years ago. Ireland has more miles of road per head of capita than any other country in the world. This makes it a real challenge to avoid running on small country roads.

Personally, I rather enjoy running on small country roads, but have learned to avoid those that I reckon are most dangerous (typically, narrow windy roads that link two towns or villages, with fast moving cars and heavy goods vehicles). I shouldn't have to avoid them though. Even on roads without footpaths, vehicles have a duty of care to drive safely, in a manner that does not present a danger to other road users. Of course we also have more pubs per head of capita, so the reality is that we have to be particularly vigilant at this time of year.

razorgil

at the end of the day, if you're comfortable in your own ability to gauge the dangers, and are adept enough to be defensive in your running, in a similar way to as if you were driving on these self same narrow roads, then you'll be fine. experience is a great teacher, and with it comes the knowledge to appreciate potential hazards, and the capabilities to absorb and react to them. whether familiar with the road or not, basic instinct will prevail...so soak up that air, happy running

pansophelia

I've been at home recently running on country roads, and will get down again over the next couple of days. The main thing, as has already been said, 'country roads' is a very broad term that covers all sorts of different roads. Many rural roads are safe enough to run on, some are not. TBH if you've driven the road yourself, you get a good idea about whether or not it's reasonably safe.
Aside from this, I find making eye contact with oncoming drivers helpful - that way you can be sure they see you!

AK333

Haven't read the whole thread so I hope I'm not repeating anyone else but I live in rural Ireland and very very rarely run on the roads, and I live on a boreen. The cars race up and down my road and its only 1 lane, and nobody seems to be taking responsibility for the hedges, so the road is disappearing into the ditches. I run in cycle lanes/footpaths, around the local racecourse, GAA pitches, running track etc. Plenty of safer places to run than a narrow badly kept road into the path of God knows what.

hollypink

Just an update; I did a good few short runs (3-5 miles) over Christmas and had no problems. I stuck to the L roads mainly and one section of R road that doesn't have any bad bends. I forgot to bring lights with me but I did wear either a yellow or pink day-glo top. There was only one very dark, rainy day when the lights would have been handy. I'm fortunate as the roads where I was aren't busy; they don't directly link any towns and you don't get boy/girl racers; I'd say I met around 5 cars most days! I had to hop up on the ditch once or twice to let vehicles pass but they saw me in plenty of time and weren't going fast. My only real concern were a few dogs who ran down driveways and barked loudly at me but they didn't venture onto the road thankfully. I did spot one or two other people out running so I wasn't a complete anomaly! Apart from the rainy day, it was a real pleasure to be out. Thanks for all the advice.