Militant runners on country lanes

Parasites the lot of em, flog em I say, flog em in public and make an example of em, this is what you get when you don't pay road tax.

We should take all recreational sport to the country roads, why stop at running or cycling?

OP, if you can stop in the distance you can see to be clear on your own side of the road these runners shouldn't be an issue.

It sounds like a very narrow road, with oncoming traffic and you have assumed that the runner should jump off the road so that you don't have to stop. Was there anywhere safe for the runner to get off the road to make room?

Otherwise he is seeing a large car coming at him that is going to run him over, until the car (you) suddenly stops.

There are potholes near us where recreational boating is an option.

I'm thinking Golf, or archery. Clay shooting?

I don't have anything to say about the OP itself other than it's not something I've encountered myself, but thinking about the bit you quote:

"the only thing I could do was to physically stop" OP, what's the issue there? It's not unusual to have to stop now and then for other road users?

Did you even read the bit you quoted? The bit I bolded for you? I DID stop! What else was I supposed to do, run him over or crash head on into the oncoming traffic? The runner didn't seem to like the fact that I stopped in my lane and didn't move out to the oncoming lane, he seemed to believe that it was his personal lane. I have no idea what he expected me to do. I stopped. I STOPPED!!! Is that clear yet?

I fully agree that bad driving, close passes of cyclists and runners are appalling, and that the driving instructor in the article above didn't go to jail is a travesty of justice, he deserved to be banged up for a hell of a long time. I have no time for bad driving as much as I have no timing aggressive bully boy antics from runners or cyclists.

The only person who could've avoided a confrontation in the incident I had was the runner, who could've simply stepped onto the verge for a few seconds to allow me to pass, and life would've gone on uninterrupted for everyone, but no, he had to be an arse.

I give a very wide berth to runners and cyclists, I slow down before overtaking so as not to unbalance cyclists, I avoid puddles around them, stay well behind if unable to overtake and try to make their life easier in general. In return, it would be good if the runners and cyclists could occasionally see some sense and make life easier for everyone's benefit, too.

And no, the tens of thousands of miles of country lanes linking villages to villages, towns and cities weren't tarmaced with runners and pedestrians in mind. This isn't the Roman or medieval times and the primary mode of transport isn't walking or horses. If anybody in any position of power decided to lower all NSL single carriageways to 20 mph, the millions who don't run on those roads but drive on them would revolt, so it's a stupid, impractical suggestion that would bring the country to a gridlock overnight. It's never going to happen.

We all need to use the roads sensibly and with a bit of thought about other users, including other types of users. Drivers need to think about cyclists, runners and horses, runners and cyclists need to think about those in metal boxes. It won't work if everyone remains tribal.

Perhaps a reason why people are suggesting you are in the wrong is because you described your options as “swerving into the other lane” or stopping. That makes it sound like you were not being very observant, or you were assuming the runner would move out of your way, and so at last minute you were left with the option of swerving or braking hard and stopping just in front of them. It would be quite understandable why anyone - runner or walker - would be quite upset to have a car drive at them at speed and then brake hard at last minute.

Maybe what you meant was that you saw the runner well in advance and couldn’t move over to the other lane in good time because of oncoming traffic, so instead you gently came to a stop well before the runner to give them space to feel safe and to continue running towards you whilst you waited for the oncoming traffic to clear. That would make the runner seem unreasonable if you ended up waiting for a while before it was safe to pass them and they were also then forced to stop.

How wide is this road?

If two cars can pass, then sure there was enough space for you to slow (stop?) but leave space to your left for him to run past but without impeding the cycling on the opposite side of the road?

Yes, the oncoming cars may have needed to slow/stop but I can't see how you had to block the path of the runner? Unless the road was literally only 50% wider than your car and all cars had to use passing places to get past each other?