Students jogging in road face inevitable danger

October 9, 2006 —

The new campus fad appears to be a form of extreme exercise where joggers compete with automobiles in a dangerous game of cat and mouse to see who wins ultimate road supremacy.

Joggers have pounded the pavement down the sides of Davis and Pierce roads in all conditions - hot or cold, day and night, rain or shine - all in the name of burning a few extra calories or training for the next big meet. The problem with all of it, though, is the obvious danger to the joggers themselves. While no one has been seriously injured yet, insistence on playing with the proverbial fire only means one thing: sooner or later, someone is going to get burned.

Continuing to mix people and fast-moving objects is bad policy. As someone who considers himself a good driver, it troubles me to think of how many times I've been driving down a poorly lit Pierce Road at night and suddenly spotted a lone jogger just ahead of my car. And since most college campuses are populated with hoards of bad drivers, I shudder to think what would happen if one of them were to happen upon a similar instance.

To add to this, I frequently see groups of joggers - whom I assume to be members of a track or cross country team - running three or four-wide instead of in a straight line. Last week, this very situation left both me and the car coming towards me stopped in the middle of the road to let the joggers safely pass. While I personally had no trouble with the momentary delay, I have serious reservations about the necessity of students running in the road to begin with.

Last time I checked, the University is equipped with both an indoor and outdoor track as well as plenty of sidewalks for joggers to use. There is even a rail trail that winds its way through the west side of campus that would be perfect for joggers. Any of these locations would be a much better alternative than Davis and Pierce roads.

Yet almost every day I still see people passing on those areas and heading to the roads as if they have some inherent desire to play human Frogger. The safety implications would be innumerous if I one day chose to drive my car out onto the track while people were jogging. So why are few eyebrows raised when joggers step onto the road for their afternoon exercise?

There is no doubt I could look into this situation further--talk to joggers and coaches to find out why so many students elect to jog in the road. But it feels like almost a waste of time since no excuse would be good enough justification for potentially putting someone's life on the line. Yes, I understand that it is the responsibility of the motorists and the joggers to exercise safety to ensure no one gets hurt. But we all know that accidents still happen and that if someone does get hurt, no reason or excuse would be good enough anymore anyways.