I've not seen any groups out yet, lots of solo riders / couples and the odd family. Everyone seems to be behaving themselves.
Well one good thing has come of this thread @strava****ers made me laugh.
@deadlydarcy sums it up perfectly, and even uses 'male hen' in context. DM me for your free surgical mask...
Out of interest, how did checking the strava segment give you the details of who had ridden it that day, and whether they were grouped or not?
Find the segment, filter it down to who has ridden it that day. You kind of have to delve into individual rides to find if people were together though. It won't show rides listed as private so it's not foolproof.
That part of the UK has a higher rate of COVID too. No coincidence ay 🤔
Surely going to the supermarket is more risky, and we are all still doing that.
The difference is you have to get food, you dont have to go out for a day with your mates.
X ammount of socialising at the supermarket = 1000 dead every 24h for however many weeks this lasts.
X ammount of socialising at the supermarket + Y ammount of riding with mates = 1000 + the differential dead every 24h for however may weeks and probably longer.
You can't eliminate the risk of going shopping, that baseline is there.
You might not think you have it, you might not even have it, same with your mates. But if every cockwomble went out and was a cock and ignored the instructions then someone dies. If everyone is a cock then lots of people die. If no ones a cock then in a few weeks people stop dying.
More people being cocks = more dead people.
For example a 4 hour pootle round the country lanes is not minimising time spent outside the home if the sole purpose of the trip is exercise.
This is the nub of it, people aren’t using it for exercise it’s a veil to go out for a bimble
If the point is to get some exercise away from home on a bike, which, by definition is going to be away from home, then what’s the issue if it’s bimble around some country lanes? Who is going to be at risk of catching C19, exactly? Forcing people to stay close to home where they’re likely to be close to lots of others doing the same is counterproductive, surely.
I walked into town this afternoon to get some bits and bobs that Morrisons didn’t have when we went shopping yesterday, it’s a mile into town, and I came home by a different route following a path alongside the river then onto a local Sustrans route, then realised I’d lost something and retraced my route, found what I’d lost, and carried on back where I was going, carrying two fairly heavy bags. I was out for four hours and walked just over six miles, without leaving the town boundary!
I was knackered and my knees, especially my left one, were killing me.
If I’d just walked into town and back, by the time I’d done the shopping and walked home I’d have still been out for over two hours and still walked around three miles, just to add a bit of extra distance and variety to the route, putting some sort of time limit is just daft, by getting away from the immediate locality you get to be away from people a lot more, and getting away from a more built-up area, seeing something like countryside is good for people’s mental health; has nobody heard about the huge spike in domestic violence since this has all kicked off? It’s really not hard to add two and two together to see what’s happening! Where I walked is called Monkton Park, and it’s actually a flood plain between the river and what was, at one time, Europe’s biggest cul-de-sac, but it gives views of countryside over the river, and there’s plenty of space for people to spread out, the only other park in town is now locked up, so unless you’re on a bike, and able to ride out into the lanes locally, there’s nowhere to walk away from people; I’m talking about a town with a population greater than Salisbury, which does have a lot more green spaces for people to go to - most of what were once green spaces have now got huge housing estates on, so where can people go?
It was beautifully summed up in something I read, apologies I cannot remember the source.
Perish the thought you get it and you have to tell the NHS whom you met, would you be proud or ashamed?
That kind of sums it up for me, no point publicly shaming as it will just drive some to behaviours more extreme.
There will always be those that break, push or flout the rules (and I hope get fined etc)
Equally there will always be those that have an accident whilst out and cause more stress on the pushed systems in place in the NHS.
We all have to do our 'bit' if we want to come through this and sometimes that is just letting shit go.
Personally I'm horrified at the level of muppetry out there (parties, bbq, raves, group rides etc) but am I surprised? Sadly not.
James
Let us purify them with fire. A cleansing is required.
Or you could save your anger for the government who prevaricated when they should have acted and have pulled a classic con in getting you to get angry at strangers in the street instead of them.
Or you could angry at those now ignoring the rules put in place to keep use safe.
If the point is to get some exercise away from home on a bike, which, by definition is going to be away from home, then what’s the issue if it’s bimble around some country lanes?
No issue other than it is not minimising time spent out doors. Yes you could have an unfixable problem with bike and may need to phone up a member of your family to pick you up meaning they are now going out in their car for non essential travel but in the last 20 years of cycling I have had to be picked up once when my chain snapped 10 miles from home and didn't fancy walking 10 miles in cycling shoes.
I think the outdoor restrictions are misguided as transmission when in open air with people a few metres apart if very unlikely. However, the general public can not be trusted to keep far enough apart, wear a mask if they are not feeling 100% etc,. hence the lockdown.
To be fair, the situation we’re in at the moment is exactly the one in which people out there acting like male hens really might have an impact on you or someone close to you.
Yes, very much this, but the main thing is they are alright so everyone else can get stuffed.
This morning on Facebook one of my friends shared an oh so worthy " I stayed at home ,did you post".
They also shared a picture of them cutting down a tree ,where the tallest son is standing on the very top rung of the ladder cutting off a branch one handed while hugging the trunk.
I feel my bike ride will be safer.
I don't want o live in a society where 'naming and shaming people' becomes a norm. I'd rather just accept that I can't control others' behaviour. That the social distancing models allow for a certain amount of deviance and the big picture is that it won't make much difference even if a few people insist on riding together.
I'm more concerned about illicit house parties, where the risk of transmission seems exponentially greater than on a small group bike ride. But of course they're not on Strava, so invisible to most of us.
One other general point: when I was in my 20s and living in London I shared a large house with five other people. In social distancing terms we were a 'household' and could have gone out for a mass walk or group run or cycle ride. Anyone seeing us would assume we were breaking the rules, but actually we wouldn't have been. Households aren't always neat family units.
it has been debated that maybe my wife could move in with her friends while I move in with mine until this is done. I don't think she was suggesting it was so I could go bike riding with them though......
I don’t want o live in a society where ‘naming and shaming people’ becomes a norm. I’d rather just accept that I can’t control others’ behaviour.
Absolutely, I find this thread and the "dob your neighbours in" one thoroughly depressing.
Absolutely, I find this thread and the “dob your neighbours in” one thoroughly depressing.
+1
It's amazing the pettiness and general clamour for more restrictions that this has brought out in poeple especially on this forum.
Some people need to be careful what they wish for.
RE the Box Hill closure linked up there.
I'm very local to it, wasn't aware of the outright ban on using the road, and rode by the 'roadblock' at the bottom yesterday afternoon on a mountain bike (ie past it, not through it, I didn't go up the hill). A few cones in the middle of the road and a "Police-Road Closed" sign.
The road is occasionally "closed" in a similar way if there has been a vehicle break down, accident, stuck caravan, some kind of event (running or cycling race crossing the road), full car parks or road works. Cyclists are usually still permitted up when this happens. There was nothing to suggest the situation was any different yesterday. No police, NT wardens or additional signage , so I don't think it is entirely fair to be upset with a handful of cyclists who went up the hill.
I'm sure most people have passed a "Road Closure" on a bike.
There are also several footpaths and bridleways that also lead up to the top of the hill, so it is entirely possible to end up on the top without having seen any closures.
Some people need to be careful what they wish for.
A million times this.
Landowners are already wetting their pants at the prospect of closing rights of way.
Press and social media are going after cyclists in a big way now, riding solo or not.
Whilst out on my bike yesterday morning. No car, no gnar and not far I got a punishment pass in the middle of nowhere on an open road. Might just have been an arsehole. Might have been an arsehole emboldened by the repeated singling out of cyclists of all genres.
Some people need to be careful what they wish for.
We need to name and shame those people 🙂
Sure enough three guys out, all live in different places near each other in Stockton
How far apart? If you set a privacy zone it makes it look like your rides terminate at a random location near your house. So they could still have been housemates.
Absolutely, I find this thread and the “dob your neighbours in” one thoroughly depressing.
+2
Some people need to be careful what they wish for.
+1
Absolutely, I find this thread and the “dob your neighbours in” one thoroughly depressing.
+2
Some people need to be careful what they wish for.
+1
+ another
So in the one hand, it's terrible that people are flouting the rules. But on the other, we just have to let them do it?
I'm confused.
Simple dobbing them in is clearly worse than help continue the spread.
Shouting at strangers in the street, stalking them online and trying to start an internet mob don't seem like reasonable behaviours to me.
Going on a group ride isn't a reasonable behaviour either but it doesn't justify acting like a bampot.
So in the one hand, it’s terrible that people are flouting the rules. But on the other, we just have to let them do it?
I’m confused.
In my view yes. I am trying very hard to do the right thing. I have control over that. I don't have control over what other people do, so I'm not going to work myself into a lather over it. Stress is bad for your immune system! Especially pointless, impotent stress. And also, perhaps I'm lucky but the majority of people I see ARE toeing the line.
The police are going to be flat out busy dealing with major infractions. I'm not sure they have the time to police every report that Mrs Miggins next door had her kids round for Sunday dinner. No she shouldn't have done it but in the great scheme of things there are things more worthy of their valuable time. It will be impossible to police every minor infraction of the rules and dealing with all the gleeful calls from citizen wannabe spies probably ties up huge resources better spent elsewhere.
The other thing which is very distasteful about all of this is the judgemental and pejorative terms people use to describe their neighbours which is often nothing to do with the virus or social distancing rules. It comes across as some long pent up anger about people who are different to me having the cheek to live next door.
Shouting at strangers in the street, stalking them online and trying to start an internet mob
Classic gammon tactics. Add in bait and escalate, death and tears. You can see why they have been left to it on the bragging and outrage networks, which are now a tabloid style sewer, infested with all the same problems they have brought to the real world.
Let-em argue night and day in circles, til they are bright red and purple with moral indignation, that elevates them to better than all the scum as they see it.
Internet mob/thought police LOL tragic and funny!
It comes across as some long pent up anger about people who are different to me having the cheek to live next door.
Agreed.
My next door neighbour is bipolar and lives on her own. She has had a few visitors. Maybe I should ring the police the next time I hear someone chatting to her in the back garden. Or maybe I should think about what it’s like being fragile, having nothing to do and no one to talk to for weeks on end. I wonder if the people visiting her are simply trying to keep her (and maybe themselves) sane and alive?
So in the one hand, it’s terrible that people are flouting the rules. But on the other, we just have to let them do it?
I’m confused.
Peak self-righteousness has well and truly been reached on here. There are always those who don't/won't/unable to understand regardless of how few words of one syllable are used. You can't reason with them, they're outliers. You can't control others. Time to step back.
Conserve your own energy and focus on your well-being and that of your family which you undoubtedly do anyway.
Quite an apt thread this.
I went out this morning for my usual 1-a-day solo bike ride.
I happened to stop at lights with two other cyclists (yep - cyclists do stop for red lights). I recognised the riders and nodded hello as you do, keeping our 2-3m distance👍
As lights changed we set off and single filed up a little hill because a woman cyclist was pedaling squares up it very slowly; when it was safe we passed her all together .. to be shouted at for not social distancing. Nobody said anything in reply, I guess we used to spoutie types yelling some sort of abuse (although typically they are in cars).
Anyways ... Top of road I go my way and other cyclists went theirs.
After ride I get a txt with a clip that had been uploaded to FB by the woman cyclist. Wrongfully assuming the 3 cyclist who overtook her were riding as a group.
So, before making wrong assumptions. Maybe just consider alternative reasons first.
RE the Box Hill closure linked up there.
I’m very local to it, wasn’t aware of the outright ban on using the road,
I live 200 miles away, and had seen it on here, a couple of other social media groups, cycling magazine and other cyclist online groups, surely the local anti cycling brigade were spraying it around everywhere?
when it was safe we passed her all together .
You could have all waited your turn.
There was a psychologist on TF1 talking about this last night. The context here is already unfavourable to denouncing ones neighbours after the Vichy experience. The psychologist explained the bebaviour in terms of a reaction to fear. When people are afraid they will do things they wouldn't normally do, if they're frightened enough they are capable of doing bad things. They find reasons to justify the unjustifiable to themselves.
Anyhow, we've been advised not, the police don't want to have deal with the calls, an irritated mayor was on saying he wasn't going to deal with complaints and besides, it's for the police to check our papers and decide if our reason to be out is justified.
All that seems to fit with the "punishment pass" and complaints about a non group noted above.
So Cinamon girl + another
anagallis_arvensis
Member
when it was safe we passed her all together .You could have all waited your turn.
We did as the video clip shows👍
And another.
We did as the video clip shows
Great, sorry on re reading my post seemed a bit, abrupt, was just meant to be a suggestion.
I spent part of my ride yesterday practising my track stands up the the hill to the top of Coombe so I could keep about 20m behind the rider I caught near the bottom.
it’s for the police to check our papers and decide if our reason to be out is justified.
We haven’t reached the police asking for “papers please” if enough people ignore the rules then we may have to.
No point in talking to the police. We had one turn up to the neighbours yesterday, all blues and two's so wandered out to see what the fuss was. Turned out it was the drivers nephews 16th birthday and he popped round to say hello. This was followed later in the day by a friend turning up at the other neighbours. Hes a GP who has just come out of lock down because his daughter was symptomatic.
There are some complete morons on this forum. Just out of interest what was your goal for putting up this tread. Shouting at cyclists in the streets and then stalking them online makes you look like a complete nutter.
There are some complete morons on this forum.
Indeed, none of them seem to be taking this virus seriously at all.
Oh, that wasn't what you meant, was it?
So in the one hand, it’s terrible that people are flouting the rules. But on the other, we just have to let them do it?
Dob them in to the police if that makes you happy and you think it's justified, but maybe leave the 'naming and shaming' to one side unless you want to live in a society where public shaming is a desirable thing.
It's quite possible to believe that people should stick to lockdown guidelines without embracing public shaming as the mechanism to achieve that. I don't think it's that complicated.
Likewise it's possible to disagree with someone without calling them a 'moron' - we're all in this together, ripping into each other doesn't achieve anything. I love you all 🙂
Landowners are already wetting their pants at the prospect of closing rights of way.
Already happening in my local area - lots of improvised signs and one RoW blocked off with building site fencing.
Already happening in my local area – lots of improvised signs and one RoW blocked off with building site fencing.
Any excuse.....
Im the opposite. We have way more people on our land than normal, meandering all over (not on RoW half the time) but as long as they stick on the tracks/wooded areas, and keep their dogs on a lead and on the FPs in the fields then I'm not fussed at all.
Im the opposite. We have way more people on our land than normal, meandering all over (not on RoW half the time) but as long as they stick on the tracks/wooded areas, and keep their dogs on a lead and on the FPs in the fields then I’m not fussed at all.
From your posts on STW in general I can deduce that you aren't an arsehole though. In terms of landowners I would say that puts you in a minority. For every one of you I reckon there are four or five Farmer Palmer types.
People who live near you are the lucky ones.
