Hey, so the other day I was meandering along taking a walk when a bicyclist went storming by me on my left, with nary a warning out of the speedy pedaling man. It scared the living crap out of me! And I thought, that would have been nice to have had some kind of verbal ‘heads-up’ from the speedy biker.
One thing I’ve noticed here in Northern CA is a huge lack of verbal warnings from runners and bikers, compared to Southern CA… and I don’t know why that is. But suffice it to say, SoCal has spoiled me and my calm emotional state. That’s for sure.
A nice “on your left!” is always appreciated!
As it is, being a runner is a hazard in and of itself to begin with. While dodging cars coming out of driveways and side streets where the drivers only look left, so I’m always willing to give a little shout out to people I come up behind.
Yes, I said drivers only look left. That’s because I run on the left side of the road.
There’s a school of thought with some runners that suggest one should run up the left side of the street, against traffic, versus running with traffic. The theorem of this practice suggests that you will never see that swerving, drunk driver or severely distracted driver coming up behind you when you’re running with traffic. (Unless everyone in front of you has a look of horror on their faces, while looking past you. Then I’d suggest throwing yourself out of harm’s way and into the shrubbery.)
But if you’re running into traffic, you at least have a decent warning of ill-begotten driving skills because you’ll see them coming, and have decent warning.
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