You’ve probably heard about the tragic death of UT graduate Lauren Huddleston, who was killed while jogging on the Katy Trail when she abruptly changed direction and was struck by a bicyclist.
While walking this week both on the Katy Trail and around White Rock Lake, I noticed a possible result of her accident – people walking on the “wrong” side of the trail. Trail traffic proceeds just as road traffic does – slow movers stay far right, faster movers pass to their left but on the right-hand side of the trail. This week I’ve seen a few folks traveling on the left side, presumably to better see the possible dangers coming at them.
The numbers were small, mind you, just one or two people each time I walked, but the implications are much larger. The safety of “the masses” depends on bringing order out of chaos, while the safety of the individual might, indeed, improve by going against the grain. I guess we’ll have to wait and see if the experiment of a few mavericks transforms into a bona fide trend. If so, we may have to don rubber suits so we can bounce off each other without injury.
