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Extract from the NPCC guidance on Covid 19 - Police Brief in Response to Coronaviris
"Use your judgement and common sense; for example, people will want to exercise locally and may need to travel to do so,
we don’t want the public sanctioned for travelling a reasonable distance to exercise."
Any police officer dishing out fines in these circumstances hasn't read the guidance and needs to be challenged.
Genuine question, not fishing, in what circumstances would one need to travel to exercise?.
When one needs that perfect picture for instagram?
I rode from my front door today. Half the ride was dull as ditchwater but it was sooooo good to be out on the bike I didn't care.
👌🏻
In Ireland we have to stay within a 2km radius from our house for exercise and shopping , only a few exceptions for going outside it (going on a spin isn’t one of them) ... and there are police checkpoints everywhere. I wonder will it be like that in the UK soon. If not, the virus will likely get much more out of control there than here. I’m not a scientist but just going by what I hear every day. The UK approach seems to be quite relaxed, up until very recently.
If you aren’t convinced then try watching the documentary which was on Sky One a few days ago about the epicentre in Italy: Coronavirus Into the red zone.
Genuine question, not fishing, in what circumstances would one need to travel to exercise?
I don't need to drive to go riding. But going back a few pages; I live on a housing estate. In normal times it's a nice place to live with little alleyways and cul de sacs so you can walk though off the main road. It's about 3/4 of a mile to the edge of the estate where there's a footpath that takes you along a railway line and then it opens up into a common.
At present if I walk the dog to the common, or around the estate, I am constantly walking into people, backtracking out of alleys when you someone's coming the other way like a deadly game of Pacman, crossing roads to avoid other walkers and joggers, you can't get 2m off the path on the footpath bit due to a wall of undergrowth on one side or a railway line on the other (I tried and have a nasty tramlines of bramble gashes on my shin) and you can't backtrack 200m if someone else is coming.
If I get in the car and drive 2 miles I can be on the military area, where there's literally 10 square miles of space. I can park in a layby away from any villages, walk on the area without going through any housing or pinch points.....last walk I did there we saw two other groups and the closest we got was about 50m.
I get the argument that I'm extending the area I may be transmitting to but if I'm not seeing anyone and the only thing touching the area are the soles of my boots, what am I transmitting and to whom compared to the risk of walking from home?
So define need? Do i need to travel - no, I can in theory do it from home. Is it sensible to travel a short distance? In my opinion, yes.
You could of course look abroad at how that kind of interpretation of guidelines played out elsewhere… people made to stay at home, to prevent wide interpretations of what stay at home guidance means. Let’s hope we can avoid the ‘made to’ rather than ‘asked to’ approach, but speak to people in France, Italy etc and see how leaving it to people’s common sense worked out for them.
I know. Trouble is that the lowest common denominator in this instance is pretty low and so as a result I am now walking from home (at higher risk to me and others) to avoid being lumped in with the dicks that do push this beyond reasonable. The car has not moved from my driveway in more than 10 days now.
But as I said last week and times since, when the Gov can't agree on what guidance is, and when there's still no coherent (to me) argument that what i propose for me is worse than what i am now 'forced' to do, I've actually bowed to the shouts of others only because I don't want to be seen to 'break rule 1', not for any good that it's doing me or others.
If the primary objective is to avoid contact with others while taking exercise yourself or exercising animals it is not unreasonable to drive 5 -10 minutes to do so, is it?
Thankfully the Government, it's advisors and health professionals agree that there are more benefits to "exercise" than merely getting the heart rate going and moving a few muscles. There are mental health benefits too, particularly in reducing stress. These benefits are most often acquired when folk get to do something they enjoy, in a pleasant environment.
It's all very well pointing out what other countries have done but we have no way of knowing what the longer term implications on overall physical and mental health will be of adopting these policies.
Too many folk on here just picking and choosing the bits of advice they want to hear, ignoring the constantly repeated bits they don't and preaching their warped viewpoint to the rest of the forum.
PURITY SPIRAL
from my point of view as a person with secondary progressive MS it is **** ignorant to tape up seats etc, i need to sit down regularly and get of my throttle bafang ebike to relax my muscle spasms before i am fit enough to climb back on to continue, There are elderly/infirm or those with mobility difficulties who also need to sit down reguarly – if such measures are taken then you remove the ability for such people to get outside and exercise – if i don’t get out at least a few times a day my leg muscles lock up to such an extent that i will need permanent care, thankfully i stay in a very rural area of galloway where such measures are not necessary in my town.
I’m sorry but you should not, NOT be sitting on public benches at this time. That is one sure fire way to catch or spread the virus.
Imagine someone with the virus who has been coughing and spluttering and sweating goes to sit down on a bench in a park (and let’s say they touched parts of it that you end up touching), you or whoever sits down on the same bench moments later... virus has spread to another person.
Nobody is saying you can’t get out and exercise (you are probably high risk category too?), but it makes sense for parks and especially benches not to be in use and closed... unless someone was to sanitise the bench after every use which isn’t going to happen. Go on a short walk from your house but don’t go far, it’s all we need for the moment.
Elderly people have no reason to go outside at all at the moment, families and communities do all their shopping.
Speaking from Ireland.
You can tell already its going to be a scorcher today
Locally quite a few people were caught riding Aston Hill yesterday. anyone caught from today will be handed with a lifetime ban
Yes, I’ve been getting grief on Faceache for riding for 90 minutes in contravention of Gove’s dictat 🙄
Don’t put it on Facebook then.
Also means I can’t ride my bike as much as I’d like because my one exercise a day is taken up with dog walking.
You are being to cautious and over reading the guidance. A 30 minute dog walk and a 1 hour bike ride on the same day are fine. Exactly wheat I am doing.
I ride my bike at 08:00 for an hour (on roads now as even at that time there are still more people out and about on the gravel tracks and singles track and they re not wide enough to keep a good distance)
I walk dogs at about 17:00 for 30 minutes around my village and once a week drive 10 minutes down the road to very quiet places for a change of scenery.
At no time and I getting closer than about 4 metres to anyone.
So glad I've read the guidelines that mjrose posted. I felt bad the day before yesterday because I took the dog for a walk then went out on the bike in the afternoon. I can't walk my dog from my front door as the town centre is busy where I live and he's scared of traffic so I drive him down to the local canal towpath with the bike in the car which is about 2 miles away and yesterday I put all the back seats down and lay the bike flat just in case the fuzz saw my back wheel in the car.
I'm not on FB so my views are from word of mouth and what I've seen and heard on TV and radio.
If the primary objective is to avoid contact with others while taking exercise yourself or exercising animals it is not unreasonable to drive 5 -10 minutes to do so, is it?
No, that's perfectly reasonable. The primary objective is to minimise contact with other people. You can best do that by sitting inside, but if you can take exercise where you'll be largely alone then do that above walking through town to the local park where there will more likely be others. If you have to drive to get there, that's fine.
Locally quite a few people were caught riding Aston Hill yesterday. anyone caught from today will be handed with a lifetime ban
in groups I assume? Because otherwise it’s an unnecessary and heavy handed approach. Sorry about the benches thing, I posted it as a fact of what’s happened in my local park, I didn’t appreciate it’d turn into a raging argument.
Its not heavy handed at all, the park is closed. Already the park is viewed as a nuisance by the powers that be and a serious (or any kind of) injury would cause a whole world of problems.
If you have 20 minutes to spare, this is a comprehensive, experience-based overview of Covid-19 from one of the top South Korean experts that explains in detail how the virus spreads.
Two relevant points are that he advocates the universal wearing of masks outside the home and that he rates the risks of transmission in an open air setting - particularly wearing masks and with social distancing - as very low. Not non-existent, but relatively low compared to indoor environments.
Risk of transmission, unsurprisingly, is far higher when you have groups of people in enclosed spaces: religious gatherings, transport systems, shops, covert house parties - which we don't know about, but are undoubtedly happening etc.
I'm posting it not because I have any particular axe to grind, but because it gives you more context to make an informed decision on your behaviour.
Oh, and to people who think they're statistically okay if they catch this thing. I've just spent two weeks plus with relatively mild symptoms of what seems likely to be Covid-19. It's not pleasant even at that level - I'm someone who rides a bike or runs maybe six days a week and has an ftp just shy of 300 watts. I suspect I have quite good lung capacity and I also have a history of acclimatising well at high altitude (4000m plus) and I was suffering serious breathlessness just walking five metres from the sofa to the kitchen. Not nice. If you have impaired lung function, I think it would be very frightening.
If I get in the car and drive 2 miles I can be on the military area
So, next genuine question, why can you not pedal that 2 miles? The roads are dead? That way, no one can say you're in the wrong?.
FWIW this isn't a Facebook thing, I've seen no grief on there about folk exercising, but then my Facebook contacts are my actual friends, not just folk I've come across.
Mibbe its more of an overpopulated southern symptom.
I can’t ride my bike as much as I’d like because my one exercise a day is taken up with dog walking.
Presume you live in Wales then.
Elderly people have no reason to go outside at all at the moment.
Seriously? They are probably the most at risk of extended period of inactivity & need to keep active daily - as above chances of contracting covid-19 in an external setting is pretty minimal.
Why oh why do old folk not move over on shared cycle paths when I ring my bell.happened three times yesterday.they walk two abreast rather than in single file when I wanted to pass and I cannot maintain 2 metres when this happens
So, next genuine question, why can you not pedal that 2 miles? The roads are dead?
I won't speak for the poster but can speak from my experience. The roads here aren't dead. There are fewer cars. That leads to two things. The cars that are on the road are speeding and driving with less care, and people are running and walking in the road (usually staring at a phone or oblivious to the world). I still ride the 2 miles to the edge of town but that bit needs to be a pootle and it isn't that much fun, it is very much "travel". I can see why someone would want to drive it and can't really see much difference between driving it and cycling it.
If the primary objective is to avoid contact with others while taking exercise yourself or exercising animals it is not unreasonable to drive 5 -10 minutes to do so, is it?
I don't think so but there's a very vocal community (on FB but here too) that call you a dick for even countenancing it. It might be a mental health / personality trait, a need for inclusion or a lack of self-confidence maybe, but when I copped a load of stick last week for it (including reporting some posts to the Mods) two things cross my mind. 1/ I must be wrong, when so many people say I am and think I'm a dick for doing it; 2/ I don't want to be ostracized by the few virtual friends I have.
So, as above I've now fallen into conformance and I'm doing 'the right thing' rather than what i think is the safe thing.
So, next genuine question, why can you not pedal that 2 miles? The roads are dead? That way, no one can say you’re in the wrong?
I do ride from home but not to the military area, I'm doing road rides on easy / quiet loops. I'm not MTB'ing because my risk assessment says that even easy MTB'ing may see me crashing (a front wheel wash out on gravel, maybe - ask TINAS) and the only times I've crashed the road bike are due to town centre traffic, other riders in a bunch, or ice. I would go to the military area to walk the dog, and let her have a run and a sniff and a bit of an explore for her own mental stimulation. The roads are not particularly conducive to lead walking her there and besides, I don't think my knees would sustain 4 extra miles a day plus giving her the chance for a proper run, my ****ed up knees are the only reason i got into cycling in the first place.
but it makes sense for parks and especially benches not to be in use and closed…
Not in central London it doesn't, those os us with the facilities need to check their privilege. Not everyone has a garden to go into and some need to be outside for exercise and mental well being. Even the French have realised this and are allowing autistic people to visit comforting places (to them) in Paris.
We all need to extend extra empathy to our neighbours at this time not be poisonous and small-minded.
Edit If I was one of those that criticised you last week theotherjonv I apologise for my thoughtlessness.
Here we go - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-52171176 "Outdoor exercise could be banned if people flout the rules".
As stated very early in the thread: don't be a dick!
you don't stand out as one of the prime antagonists but thanks anyway.
Was just about to link to that whitestone. The next few days will dictate what happens now, if the general public can't behave (pretty much guaranteed) then we'll be restricted to turbo trainers and running round the garden, if you are lucky enough to have one.
There are fewer cars. That leads to two things. The cars that are on the road are speeding and driving with less care, and people are running and walking in the road (usually staring at a phone or oblivious to the world). I still ride the 2 miles to the edge of town but that bit needs to be a pootle and it isn’t that much fun, it is very much “travel”. I can see why someone would want to drive it and can’t really see much difference between driving it and cycling it.
So what cyclists really want - drastically less traffic - has happened, but we still aren’t happy riding on the roads? For two miles - maybe ten minutes, the same length of time it would take to drive it, in honesty.
Not in central London it doesn’t, those os us with the facilities need to check their privilege. Not everyone has a garden to go into and some need to be outside for exercise and mental well being. Even the French have realised this and are allowing autistic people to visit comforting places (to them) in Paris.
Yes, even in London. The virus doesn’t care where you’re from, if you’re a Londoner or a northerner or a Scouse , old, fat, rich, whatever. Everyone can catch it,
My sister lives there and says most of the parks are rightly closed already. Why should it be any different there? If you want to get outside, walk somewhere from your front door - pass people at a distance.
The message here is stay safe by staying indoors.
maybe ten minutes, the same length of time it would take to drive it,
So what difference does it make if someone rides it or drives it? You travel the same distance away from your house, spend the same time outside.
As I said, I do ride it and in general I'd rather dodge pedestrians than cars but riding or driving makes little difference.
Little difference if it was just you perhaps. If everyone drives 10 minutes for exercise then preventing geographic spread becomes that much harder. If it really was just you doing it, then obviously it wouldn’t really be an issue.
For the sake of everyone’s general health and well-being, no one wants STAY AT HOME to have to change to STAY IN YOUR HOME… so act wisely to avoid that. Please. Pretty please.
edit - deleted, I've said it all before.
If the London parks were open then plenty of people would go to them - and everyone would be getting their knickers in a twist about photos which had been taken to make it look like a crowd.
As stated very early in the thread: don’t be a dick!
Problem is dicks will always be dicks, a few have shown it on here.
Seriously? They are probably the most at risk of extended period of inactivity & need to keep active daily – as above chances of contracting covid-19 in an external setting is pretty minimal.
Yes seriously. That is the message over here. We have been using the word “cocooning” whereby elderly people and high risk people have all their shopping and errands done by family or people in the community, they don’t leave their door.
They certainly should not be going to busy shops if unavoidable. A walk up and down the stairs should be sufficient, if wanting fresh air then a few minutes walk from the front door is all that should done for the high risk group at the most.
I don't think that the government is looking to extend lockdown because a minority of cyclists are driving 10 minutes to ride away from busy bridleways. The issue is, and always was, that a minority of the public are still heading to busy spots to meet up and ignore social distancing rules, sunbathing in parks etc.
We need to stop beating ourselves, and each other, up on the issue.
Yep
The message here is stay safe by staying indoors.
Yes but the message also says you're allowed to leave the house for [list of reasons] inc exercise.
But then if you close the parks, you're forcing everyone into a smaller area so less chance of social distancing. More anxiety from people about exercising, encountering others, more stress.
There was a podcast I saw somewhere this morning (can't find it now) about exercise guilt, the anxiety of being dobbed in by neighbours, the stress of encountering too many others. We're already a crowded nation so it makes no sense to say "you are allowed to leave your house to exercise" and then close everywhere anyway.
Either you say - stay indoors, everywhere is closed, you're not allowed out
OR
accept that you've so far allowed people out once a day under social distancing rules and then actually give them the opportunity to do that safely, ideally locally/no driving etc but with limited short drives if absolutely necessary.
No wonder the messaging remains so confused. It's been appalling badly handled alongside the fact that a significant minority of people are also complete dickheads.
Closing honey pot sites is an obvious and perfectly understandable measure to take, be it parks in cities or beauty spots in the countryside.