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Walking is a great form of exercise and I love seeing people (often with their dogs) out walking along the streets of Jimboomba or the rural roads that I drive along in Cedar Grove.
However, I got quite a fright the other morning driving to the gym for an early morning session. I was driving along Cedar Grove road, when suddenly just in front of me (but off to the right side of the road) I spotted an early morning walker. I was almost upon them before I actually saw them. The combination of darkness, drizzle, reflective glare coming off the road from the car headlights and the fact the walker was completely dressed from top to toe in all black had made them invisible. I had an awful vision of how the scenario could have turned out completely differently had they been walking on my side of the road.
So here’s 3 things you can do to keep yourself safe when out walking on our rural residential roads. Of course in an ideal situation you would walk on the footpath, but in our rural residential neighbourhoods the chances of a footpath being provided anytime soon are negligible. So it is on the roads (or the sides of the road) one must walk.
Wear the lightest coloured clothing you can find (including jumpers and hats).
Get reflective – you can get shoes with reflective inlays, or buy cheap arm, wrist or ankle bands that are reflective (search ebay, or check out local cycling or running stores). There are also shirts and tights that have reflective stripes etc printed on them. The more the merrier – don’t be shy. You are trying to stay alive here!
Add some light. In addition to reflective bands and stripes you can also get small lights (a bit similar to a bicycle tail light) which you can clip on to either your clothing or bags (or your dogs collar or lead such as these from our neighbours at vet-n-pet DIRECT)
The walker and dog in the video below is much easier to see wearing a light coloured shirt, reflective ankle strap and arm light. So keep enjoying your walks, but please be safe and be seen!