Earlier quoted context omitted.
...walking on rural roads at night where there is no footpath is horrendously dangerous... Do you have to walk on the road? One might have expected that in rural areas one could walk through fields and forests.
The context here is UK rural areas which are not quite like other places. Imagine a road that can fit 1 car, with wider places every few hundred metres and 2m+ hedges on both sides, immediately next to the road. Apart from specific paths you can't really go into a field. Random example https://thumbs.dreamstime.com/z/narrow-road-high-hedge-18153... Not all counties will look like that, but quite a lot of them to. Ima…
I used to walk such roads at night.
I was taught, to keep safe:
- Carry a torch (flashlight outside the UK ;-) with good batteries, and don't wear dark clothing. Turn on the torch when you see headlights in the distance, make sure it's pointing somewhere visible.
- Walk on the right-hand side of the road (cars drive on the left in the UK). It's marginal on single-lane country roads but cars still tend towards their normal driving side. Better if you can see surprise vehicles coming towards you rather than from behind you, and they can see you facing them.
- Wear retro-reflective clothing / strips if possible.
As long as cars can see you, they slow down to pass just as they will for a car driving in the opposite direction. Which at night they first recognise by headlights, from quite far away and around corners, so light is what they're looking out for.
Definitely don't be dark, as that makes you invisible to cars at night until very close.