There is a concrete path running alongside the road. It was poured on purpose. Somebody surveyed it, somebody funded it, somebody built it. It exists for exactly one reason, which is so that a person on foot does not have to be in the road.
And there is a guy walking in the road. Six feet from the sidewalk. In the dark. In a black hoodie.
This is not a preference thing
Plenty of places do not have sidewalks. That is a real problem and it is not what this is about.
This is about the ones where the sidewalk is right there. Visible. Empty. Clean. Recently paved. And the person has decided the road is better.
The night version is the one that gets me
Black clothes. No reflector. Walking with traffic instead of against it. On a road with no streetlights.
You are now a dark object in a lane where two-ton vehicles are traveling at forty-five miles an hour, and the only thing between you and a very bad night is a stranger's reaction time and the general assumption that nobody would be standing there.
And when a car has to swerve, there's the hand gesture. The little palms-up what-the-hell, delivered from a man standing in a traffic lane.
You chose this. Twenty feet to your right is a strip of concrete that exists for exactly one reason, which is you, and you looked directly at it, walked past it, and stepped into a road where cars go. And now you're standing in it doing a gesture at a stranger who almost killed you by accident.
The group version
Four of them. Across the entire lane. Coming toward you.
Nobody breaks formation. Nobody goes single file. They just keep coming, and the expectation is that the car will handle it, which it will, because the car has a driver in it who does not want to go to prison.
The whole ask
The sidewalk is there. Use it. If there is not one, walk facing traffic and wear something a driver can actually see.
That is it. It costs nothing. It is five feet to the left.
How to handle it
- Drive at exactly their speed behind them. Do not honk. Do not pass. Just follow, at walking pace, indefinitely, headlights on them the whole way. Let them work out how long you're willing to do this, because the answer is longer than they are.
- Stop the car and get out. Do not approach. Do not say anything. Stand beside your open door and look at the sidewalk. Then at them. Then back at the sidewalk. Hold it until somebody moves, and make sure it isn't you.
- Go fully around them into the oncoming lane. Slowly. Wide. Wider than necessary. Wide enough that they understand exactly how much road is being surrendered on their behalf, and that you want them to notice it.
- Roll the window down and say nothing. Drive alongside them with the window open for about four seconds. Make direct eye contact the entire time. Then leave. They'll spend the rest of that walk trying to decide what that was.
Frequently asked questions
What if there is no sidewalk?
Then this is not about you. Walk facing traffic.
Pedestrians have the right of way.
Yes.
So?
So does a stop sign, and people run those too, and neither fact has ever stopped a vehicle.
Is it really that dangerous?
Yes.
Aren't you being dramatic?
Yes. Also yes to the previous one.
What about runners?
Same rules, and they know them better than anybody, which makes the ones who ignore them worse.
A note on safety
None of this is advice, and number five is actually stupid, do not do number five. We sell merch. We are not qualified to tell you how to operate a vehicle, cross a street, or deal with the four teenagers occupying an entire lane on a county road at ten at night. Do what you want. You were going to.
