‘I decided not to jog here after dark’: new English council guidance prioritises women’s safety

Reetta Vaahtoranta began campaigning with Living Streets after experiencing harassment while jogging along the Greenway in east London. Photograph: Martin Godwin/The Guardian

Reetta Vaahtoranta used to go running in the evening along the Greenway, a four-mile (7km) pathway stretching across east London. But increasingly, she found herself receiving unwanted attention from lone male passersby. She switched her running clothes to baggier options, because “the less attractive and weirder you look, the less likely you are to get people following you”.

“In the end, I just decided it was not worth it to come jogging here after dark,” she said. “If I know it can be a bit dodgy, then I just stop doing it. Which is a shame because in the centre of the borough there aren’t that many green spaces.”