Mainers Have Wildly Strong Feelings About Where People Should Jog

Obviously, I don't jog.

Aside from the fact that I weigh a ton, have oddly short legs, and have the lung capacity of a sandwich baggie... I also suffered a leg injury years back that keeps from anything exciting like running. If a bear chased me in the woods, I'd be the quickest meal ever. I admire people who get out and of that kind of physical exercise, but that just ain't me.

That said, I saw a Reddit thread that got into a different kind of debate when it came to running as exercise. There seemed to be quite the debate over whether runners are fine to jog in the road, or whether they should be on sidewalks with the other pedestrians. It caused quite the heated debate.

So what's wrong with running on sidewalks?

To be fair, I've wondered this myself. I live in a somewhat rural area, and people jog in the road because there are no sidewalks, and I totally get that. But in areas closer to town, people still run in the road right next to perfectly good sidewalks, and I've often wondered why?

Most runners in the thread pointed out that the constant changing of the surface is dangerous... Meaning that there's a lot of potential for personal injury, like a rolled ankle, etc. Drivers feel like they often have to move their vehicles into oncoming traffic in the opposite lane to try and not hit runners.

The division is plain and simple.

In the thread, and I also imagine this is the case for most Mainers, there were basically two groups of people: Those who think the runners should be more conscious of their surroundings, and runners who think cars should be more mindful of them. It's hard to say who's right or wrong. Maybe both sides are both?

One thing I didn't really see, were many people trying to justify both sides. It just seemed to be the typical "I'm right, you're wrong" conversation. Voices of reason were quickly ridiculed by both opposing sides. Haha... That almost never happens these days, right?

Here's the thing, runners aren't going anywhere. And guess what? Neither are cars. Will this debate ever be settled? Nope. Obviously, safety should be king here. And maybe now I understand a little more why runners don't use the sidewalks, but I'll never feel quite settled with avoiding a jogger, by almost hitting a car. It feels like a Catch-22. Either way seems like a brutal outcome.

Maybe these will change your mind about where to jog...