Do you wear visibility gear when running in the dark?

PaulieC

Krusty_Clown wrote: »

The other night, I found myself working late and had to stick around work for an additional hour, before I could pick my daughter up and go home. Rifling through my drawers in work, all I could find was black stuff (I pretty much always wear some form of high-viz gear and/or lights when running at night. Given the choice between not running and wearing dark gear, I took an informed risk, and ran a local well-lit loop, almost entirely on paths (three roads to cross). I came across around 15 runners on my 5 mile loop, and thought it was strange that all but two of them were wearing all black.

Moral of the story: Ninjas attract ninjas.

Other moral: runners are idiots.

Yes, I'm an idiot.

did you get killed ?

IvoryTower

i feel pretty safe on a footpath and i look both ways before crossing the road, works for me!

Krusty_Clown

PaulieC wrote: »

did you get killed ?

It was touch and go there for a while, but I jumped into a hot shower, and my teeth soon stopped chattering.

DubOnHoliday

If drivers etc don't see me on the path or roads, it wont be for the want of trying, I wear bright colors plus relfectiv gear. I also wear this trail running, if I break my face and am lying in some bog, I'd want people to see where I am.
Last week on the hills I passed a walker, he told me he saw me coming from miles away (bright yellow jacket) . I laughed

Where I live you are going to be running on a road at some point if you do any distance as all, you are really taking your life in your hands if you don't stand out.

rom

PaulieC wrote: »

Is this hypothetical car driving in the dark with no lights on ? If that's the case, high-viz or reflective material is unlikely to save you. If the car does have its lights on then all you have to do is look around, same as you always would when crossing a road.

There are studies indicating that high-viz is not actually as god as you might think when it comes to drivers seeing you. Search for "drivers don't see high-viz" and there are range of articles on the subject.

Bottom line is you have to look out for yourself and assume nobody else is.

Not a car with lights off off but everyone can get distracted. Personally I zone out a bit while running and am not concentrating on traffic patterns

100% agree that hi visibility gear is far from a life saver. Now I stop when crossing every road. I don't take risks, wait for the lights etc.

"Bottom line is you have to look out for yourself and assume nobody else is."
Exactly. At the end of the day its just a hobby no need to die doing it.

Stark

Personally I prefer to wear discreet clothing when running rather than Christmas tree decorations as I attract less attention from the wrong sort of people. Have yet to be hit by a car in spite of the lack of flashing decorations.

rom wrote:

Secondly when running your vision is impaired. Ever notice that you run past so.done and notice who they are later. Well when putting in effort you body kind of says your legs need the energy etc and your eyes need less. Its a ki d of tunnel vision. For these two reasons you should wear reflective gear and cross all roads slowly and safely. If you need to do a session then do it somewhere where there is no roads to cross or cross the roads during the warm up or cool down parts of your run. Expect that drivers can't see you.

Can't say I experience vision loss on a regular basis when running Most of my running on footpaths is at easy pace anyway, if I'm doing a harder session it'll be in a park or on a track or some other off-road location. I'd wager most people you meet out running on the footpaths aren't exactly tearing it up either.

ThisRegard

I see there have been posts deleted, the dangers of drunk posting, haha.

rom

ThisRegard wrote: »

I see there have been posts deleted, the dangers of drunk posting, haha.

Nah, it just wasn't worth it.