Etiquette question: should you always and only run facing traffic?

I find it hard to just trust people not to kill me particularly in the age of cell phones.

Running against traffic has saved my life more than once.

If no one is coming from the other direction I just move to the opposite side of the road when a car comes.

I avoid these situations as good as possible.

If unavoidable, then i run against the traffic but only in the case there is enough room to react. Sometimes there are natural or artificual walls on the side of the street and then you have no possibility to escape a danger. Also if there is much more room on the other side i prefer the other side, because its just less likely someone hits you. Its all a matter of probability.

It has nothing to do with "etiquette", but with safety. I'm more likely to be able to see an impaired or distracted driver endangering me if I'm facing traffic. Of course, facing traffic isn't the safest place to be in all cases. Sometimes the shoulder is much wider on the "wrong" side, and I'll sometimes move to the outside of a tight turn, even if it's the "wrong" side, to give approaching drivers a better chance to see me.

If you're by yourself you should be facing traffic unless that side of the road puts you in greater danger. If you're in a group, you should run single-file. Soft Boulder hipsters don't know about that. Droody is just being a boyscout, you won't see any true pros giving this any of their time.

Super deep lol

A pedestrian can typically move laterally to the edge or off the road if circumstances warrant. A road cyclist is more or less constrained to riding the edge of the road regardless of which side of the road they're on so there is inherently more responsibility on the car driver to give room. Going with traffic, the relative speed is lower which should be safer.

And for the previous poster asking about it, this is the main reason you should bike with traffic. That wind resistance that is only a minor annoyance when running can easily cause a major accident when cycling.

It’s called human nature.

Run on that double yellow line in the middle of the road.

Obviously on some roads the point is moot. I live in a very rural area. Most runs I never see a car. I just run in whichever track in the gravel has the best footing. It’s quiet enough that On the rare occasions I get passed by a car, I hear it coming plenty early.

So it’s “run safety etiquette,” whatever.

see...I dont buy that. I think you are right, that is the reason given. But Bikes and cars can have up to 60+ MPH differential. I have been convinced by this thread that running against makes all sense, but biking is a vehicle? Ive been a biker my whole life, it is indeed a breath holding experience when on a tight road waiting for that next car to blow by you hopefully not distracted for even a split second. If we biked against, I get that you are not as nimble as a runner, but i sure as he$$ would like the chance to dive off to the side if I see someone weaving in toward me? Biking against would also void all the a-holio bikers that ride 3 abreast. They can pretend to not see you when riding with traffic, but toward? Problem solved.

I typically run very early in the morning in the dark on rural roads and I see a car maybe once every 10-15 minutes. I run right down the middle of the road and like Evan Jogger move to the opposite side of the road when there is a car. Have been doing this for years and have never had a problem. I'm also lit up like a Christmas tree. I get a lot of bewildering looks from the resident deer.

Most states in the US have laws similar to the following:

Source: frequently asked questions (FAQ) regarding laws that apply to bicycles and pedestrians.

Oh wait, so his tweet was about victim-blaming that runner who got killed by a drunk driver? The same driver who was so drunk that, after plowing into a group of runners, later crashed his car into the median?

What an ass.

It's definitely safer to stay on the left so you can see oncoming traffic. Noah's outburst happened maybe 2 miles in, with a large group starting out together, getting passed by a dozen or so in his group. So it was sort of chaotic. That said, this was 8:15 on a Sunday morning on a dirt road with maybe one car passing every 10 or 15 minutes. The drivers were polite and patient. Runners were good at calling out "car up" or "car back" but the group was not consistent with staying to the right or left. But note there were other groups out there, including CU Buffs, running on the right side of the road, not the left.

Running opposite of traffic is always a good plan.

Because on a bike relative speed is more of a safety issue than visibility. If you're riding at 15-20mph in 35 mph traffic, would you rather get hit head-on with a relative speed of 50-55mph or from behind with a relative speed of 20-25mph?

An intelligent person should be able to figure out which side of the road is safer. All things equal I do always run against traffic. I want to see the 2 ton weapon coming at me and react if they aren't.

There are situations, however, where running with traffic is safer. If you are running a very short stretch of road where you turn right onto it and off of it you are likely safer not crossing traffic twice for that short stretch. I'll also cross over if I'm at a part of the road where the traffic moving with me has a much better view than the traffic coming the other way. This happens on some of the rural twisty roads I'll run where I make sure I'm on the side of the road where the drivers can see me from further away.

Not what he was referencing. like at all. There was an enormous group of runners, about a group of 60-70 people runners 6, 7, 8 wide down the middle of a winding hilly road. There are a number of blind corners and hills and these runners were still spread out all over the road.