Here’s the latest advice, in The Sun:
But what does “stay home” mean? Not go outside? Not take discretionary walks or bikes? Not ‘travel’ – which is unclear too.
Adrian Dix and Bonnie Henry clarify:
Henry and Dix reminded people that while all B.C. parks are closed, they can still go for walks or ride bikes with family in their own neighbourhoods, while keeping a safe physical distance of at least two metres from others.
Precision, when giving advice on a critical issue to everyone, is important, not just quibbling. When does a walk or ride turn into travel? Does it matter, if social distancing is practiced? What about stopping, to find a bathroom, to get a drink of some kind, to talk briefly with a friend or give directions?
Is this kind of stopping acceptable:
A friend in Yaletown noted that yesterday there were few people on Davie, a typically busy shopping street, nor even in Emery Barnes Park. Most people outside seemed to have gravitated to the seawall and adjacent parks, like Sunset above. After all, there’s almost nothing else to do if you live in a downtown apartment. No coffee bars, gyms, theatres, restaurants. And no backyards. This is for many what it means when told they can take “walks or ride bikes with family in their own neighbourhoods.” But is this okay?
If the answer is yes, but only for people in the neighbourhood, does that mean only the forty thousand or so in the West End? Should they not trespass into False Creek, or vice versa?
See how fast it can get silly. And yet, we still need guidance.
A further question that isn’t a quibble: Is two metres separation the right length for cycling. It probably isn’t.
From Anne C. M. Hyman, president of the Potomac Pedalers
…your respiratory signature is not just a stationary, six-foot sphere around you, but it turns into a comet-shaped trail while you’re at speed. The majority of your signature is still around you in your sphere, but you’re moving fast enough that your sphere starts trailing behind you, where you used to be. (Full column here.)
After two weeks of quarantine in an apartment, I’m going outside on these first warm days of spring. But I want to be safe and to respect others. I’ll wear a mask. But am I doing the right thing when I cycle the seawall, stop at David Lam, get a coffee at a food cart? (And then try to find a bathroom!)
I need to know. Precisely.
If this was being spread by contagion trails behind cyclists it would be way worse than it is. Not saying it can’t happen, and better to stick to more than 2m distance when riding – but that happens anyway, the faster one rides.
Public bathrooms should be for emergencies only at this time. That creates the incentive to stay in your neighbourhood as recommended. In fact, the need to go to a bathroom other than in your own home may bake a perfect definition of travel.
I saw a similar piece on the news (CTV?) about the breathing fog left behind runners (because they inhale and exhale more forcefully) and you/they may need more than 2m from others/each other.
I’ve been catching up on a lot of TV programs (esp. History, Smithsonian and Discovery channels) as well as decluttering my condo.
… so maybe strolling off the path (across the grass or beach) may be better (?)
Wash your coffee before drinking
If you read the link, and the link within the link, you find that cycling is actually still encouraged. The first link does talk about a cycle racing club that has cancelled events and gatherings but this is quite different than normal cycling or even a road workout with a friend. They are likely to typically ride in larger groups and they tend to draft each other as a matter of course. They are also going for a workout that involves heavy breathing, sweating, spitting etc. You could try to regulate those behaviours in a pack but it probably isn’t worth the risk.
On the other hand, what he hasn’t made clear is if there is an elevated level of risk in typical cycling at all – but he did give it a thumbs up. Your sphere of influence doesn’t necessarily grow on a bike, it changes shape. There is nothing telling us that breathing harder releases more virus into the environment, whether it is viable on vapour as opposed to droplets or whether the virus can float freely without a liquid medium. We’ve heard that it is not airborne but is spread by droplets. So it seems likely that you need to cough, sneeze or spit to be a problem.
There sure are a lot of bikes out there. I hope the sudden surge in popularity holds beyond this crisis.
On the last part what is it they say? That a lie gets half way around the world before the truth gets out of bed.
It’s important to be suspicious of anything in corporate media that claims that alternative transportation to be problematic. The automotive industrial complex (and related oil industry) are still around and still culture jamming to support their industries. They remodelled the entire world in the past century to benefit themselves and will do it again. This supposed “study” has already been debunked but I’m sure it’ll be blindly reposted many times.
https://www.businessinsider.com/backlash-coronavirus-simulation-medium-said-runners-need-32-feet-distance-2020-4?op=1
The lie they gave a few years ago was that “cyclists” were dangerous to anyone walking and had a personality trait that said they were malicious and wanting to “plow you down”. A complete lie but there were people gullible enough to buy it. I worry that this new bit of BS will still be believed for awhile by some.
“I need to know. Precisely.”
If you’re asking the question then I think you probably don’t have too much to worry about. You’re never going to see a set of rules or guidelines that covers every eventuality and nor, I think, would you want to. Yes, it would be nice to point to some kind of rule to shame non-compliers with, but the truth is that if they haven’t figured it out by now then a rule probably wouldn’t persuade them.
So you rely on common sense to fill in the gap. That says that you minimize going out for the most part, but when you do you avoid getting close to people, use hand coverings when touching public surfaces and take care to use a mask in enclosed public spaces.
We’re very fortunate here in BC, it looks very much like we’ve flattened the curve with the current level of restrictions. While this is no doubt due to a confluence of multiple lucky factors, I like to think that a big one is because most of us Left Coasters ask these kinds of questions – it shows that we care about one another.
It’s emblematic of today’s society that people look for exacting precision.
Maybe it’s a result of the advance of technology over the past 50 years.
Maybe it’s the decline of practical thinking or common sense (maybe that’s tied to the advance of technology? Do you really need a computer on your fridge to tell you when you need to buy milk?)
In many things there is no certainty, or trying to find certainty may be futile.
But in addressing the masses, there is a long history of distilling information to improve understanding (ie feng shui).
I would venture to assume that the actual compliance looks like a bell curve. Some of us are interpreting guidelines more extremely than others and there are some behaving with a looser set of guidelines however by in larger the average is apparently just right to flatten our local area curve. Job well done! We each can feel confident than if we keep doing what we are doing we will not overwhelm our health care system.
However, given my own respiratory history, I do not want to be one of patients taking advantage of the available capacity in the health care system. Avoiding the aforementioned “respiratory signature” seems prudent.