Scientific studies show that runners collide with autonomous vehicles three times more often than pedestrians. The reason? The desire to maintain pace often outweighs caution.
Pace Over Safety? How Your Brain Functions During a Run
According to the latest research conducted by the University of Glasgow and KAIST, runners represent a specific and more vulnerable group of road users compared to walkers. Scientists utilized Augmented Reality (AR) technology to safely test how people interact with autonomous vehicles (AVs) at intersections. The study involved 24 volunteers who navigated a route both walking and running, revealing striking differences in behavior.
While pedestrians typically slow down or stop before a crosswalk to assess a car’s speed, runners rarely change their rhythm. Their primary motivation is to maintain their target pace and avoid breaking their training flow. In the world of amateur and professional sports, where every second per mile counts, intersections are viewed as annoying obstacles rather than points requiring extra caution.
Experts note that running is currently the most popular physical activity in the world, practiced by over 600 million people. Many of these athletes train in urban environments where driverless cars are becoming increasingly common. This study is the first to highlight that current AV safety systems were primarily designed for slow-moving pedestrians, potentially leaving gaps in protection for faster-moving runners.
Three Times More Collisions: Why the Gap in the Simulator?
During the AR simulator experiment, runners experienced three times as many collisions with vehicles as walkers, among whom no accidents were recorded. Analysis of these incidents revealed a frightening pattern: athletes often decided to risk sprinting in front of an oncoming car, misjudging its speed. Furthermore, in two cases, participants ignored a red light displayed on the vehicle in an attempt to “beat” the car.
Researcher Ammar Al-Taie, a runner himself, explains that this risk-taking is strongly linked to the physical cost of stopping. Accelerating again after a full stop requires significant physical effort and adds a cognitive load. Runners subconsciously try to save energy, which leads to a reduction in the time spent analyzing traffic situations.
Another issue is the phenomenon of over-reliance on technology. Having less time to observe car movement, runners rely primarily on light signals emitted by the vehicle rather than verifying if the car is actually slowing down. Pedestrians, by contrast, combine both sources of information, allowing them to make much safer decisions before entering the roadway.
Autonomous Cars Don’t Understand Runners—And That’s a Problem
To improve safety, researchers tested special external Human-Machine Interfaces (eHMI). These are displays mounted on the car’s body intended to replace traditional driver gestures, such as eye contact or a nod. The results showed that simple color signals are much clearer for runners than complex animations, which the athlete’s eye cannot process effectively while in motion.
The team proposed an innovative DualBeam system, which uses two rows of lights in amber and purple. The amber signal indicates the car does not intend to yield, while purple gives the “green light” for a safe crossing. These colors were chosen to avoid confusion with traditional traffic lights and to reduce the risk of runners mindlessly following a car’s “commands.”
Additional support could come from vibration and audio notifications sent directly to runners’ smartwatches or headphones. Such an early warning system would allow athletes to receive information about an approaching autonomous vehicle without looking away from their path. This would enable them to adjust their stride in advance, significantly reducing the number of dangerous situations at urban intersections.
A Shared Future on Urban Routes
Autonomous cars and runners do not have to be a threat to one another. The key is for technology to keep pace with human behavior—especially for those moving quickly and irregularly. Better communication between vehicles and wearable devices, along with incorporating runner dynamics into detection systems, is a major step toward a city where training is both safe and unrestricted.
