I meant in reality, I know what people are supposed to have been doing.
People and traffic everywhere, there's obviously lots more essential journeys this time around...
Last edited:
Cycling log - random events in the day of a cyclist II
- Thread starter PhilofCas
- Start date
I meant in reality, I know what people are supposed to have been doing.
People and traffic everywhere, there's obviously lots more essential journeys this time around...
Paul L
coffee lounge for me
Yep, the skies are stiller quieter with fewer planes though, thankfully. I’m not under a flight path per se but the background noise and vapour trails noticeably absent. All these ‘Europeans’ (in their census filling) must be in strait jackets waiting to travel ‘home’ for their essential holidays.
S-Man
StrivingON
I must take a trip to your area! I need a haircut, and a pub lunch followed by a trip to M&S to buy some socks would be good.
My BIL got pulled over by the cops for taking his daughter out for a driving lesson. They told him it was not essential and to go straight home or they would fine him.
Cruising round the Dales in a cabrio or on a Harley seems less essential than a driving lesson.
I must take a trip to your area! I need a haircut, and a pub lunch followed by a trip to M&S to buy some socks would be good.
My BIL got pulled over by the cops for taking his daughter out for a driving lesson. They told him it was not essential and to go straight home or they would fine him.
Cruising round the Dales in a cabrio or on a Harley seems less essential than a driving lesson.
I'm still servicing kit in pubs that are doing takeaway lunches, most shops I see are open, I still queue at traffic hotspots every day. Honestly, it's barely quieter than a typical Sunday pre Covid. All the people in my building have had guests/friends/partners over right through since last March.
I've not seen one Police interaction throughout the whole thing, even during the first proper lockdown we had.
I'm not saying it hasn't happened, but what I've seen on the news and what I see on a daily basis are two different things.
Can any of us actually remember what traffic levels were like pre-Covid?
This is all a bit ‘man out & about complaining that others are doing the same’.
I think traffic levels are lower, as a regular cyclist I am hyper aware of this. Anyway a nice 22 miles before work & apparently I am ‘trending faster’. Small wins.
This is all a bit ‘man out & about complaining that others are doing the same’.
I think traffic levels are lower, as a regular cyclist I am hyper aware of this. Anyway a nice 22 miles before work & apparently I am ‘trending faster’. Small wins.
I can because my brain is still calibrated for the congestion when quickly working out how long it will take me to get somewhere.
If I'm going to Stoke, Brum, Leicester, Northants, Kettering or anywhere else the usual places still queue, and it isn't all wagons and vans. I know there are lots of office workers who have still been going in unlike the first proper lockdown and there are definitely more shops open than the first time so it isn't just a case of "oh, everybody should be at home" because evidently they aren't.
Road traffic levels are down, there is actual data on this. Bear in mind all the other forms of transport that are being massively under used (rail, bus, air). Same shops are open, nothing has changed in that respect. Pubs doing take aways is more of a thing but nothing wrong with that.
You don't have to show me the data to say over all traffic is down, I know it is, I see it every day. What it isn't is some dystopian 28 Days Later ghost town, which according to some it should be as we're in a "lockdown". There's not enough of a reduction to prevent congestion in the usual places of a morning and afternoon, which apparently shouldn't be happening because everything is shut.
Exactly the same here in Leeds. When we really were in lockdown a year ago it was like a zombie apocalypse. Cycling in town at teatime on Wednesday was like Christmas day 2pm. It is now at about 80-90% of normal levels, which is higher than it should be bearing in mind all pubs and most shops are shut.
While they are sitting in the car of course it doesn't matter at all. It's where they are going, why they are travelling and who they are going to encounter while they are there that is under question.
But it seems to be questioned by others who are ‘out & about’? “It’s ok for me to do it but not other people”.
If people adhere to social distancing, wear masks etc then it is not a problem. Businesses have adapted to trade during lockdown where allowed; this is obviously a good thing IMV.
I only leave the house for exercise & food shopping.
And when you have left the house for exercise and food shopping have you looked at the people also out and thought "bloody hell, they must be a fit lot round here, or they are obese, becasue if all these people are doing "essential journeys" for exercise or shopping then they are either Olympic athletes or they never stop eating."
What I am saying is that it is all right for you to go out for exercise, work and food, same as it is me. However we all know that if that were the case the place would be nearly as quiet as Christmas Day. It's not.
In addition, if it were OK for people to be out normally provided they wore masks and exhibited social distancing then we would have fewer restrictions. It's not, as we all know masks and distancing are not of themselves controls, they are part of a raft of controls that together hopefully stop the spread but are individually not very effective. The best control is "stay at home"; other measures used when you go out are at best only mitigation. What's the best way to avoid being electrocuted in an electricity substation? Wear protective clothing, get training in safe handling of 33kV electricity? No, stay out of the substation. Put a bloody big fence round it. That way the only people inside it are the ones that really need to be there. Now we all know that it's not practical to but a barbed wire fence across my front door, but if we did it would be a better control than any amount of mask wearing and social distancing.
What we currently have is people wandering around the substation because they fancy a day out, but maybe this is OK because they are wearing rubber gloves and, well, we have told them to be careful.
This was my point, thanks Steve. BTW I am "out and about" because I drive 40k miles a year for work.
I just don’t presume that I am more virtuous than others or that others are misbehaving. I have no insight into their lives. It will not be as quiet as Xmas day & it is disingenuous to suggest so.
I see more people out walking, this has obviously drifted into socialising to some degree but I don’t have a problem with it.
Perhaps the people driving would otherwise be using the train? Some traffic will have increased, delivery drivers etc. I just don’t assume that everyone is at fault in their actions.
Just as it is disingenuous to suggest that all the cars you see have a sensible reason to be out. Some do, like Matt going to service commercial kitchen equipment or you and me going to the supermarket. Some don't, like S-man's convertibles and Harleys out on Sunday afternoons. The balance? Well, I remember how little traffic there was this time last year, it really was like Christmas Day. I don't expect it to be so quiet now, but I don't expect it to be like a Saturday afternoon on match day, and it doesn't feel far off.
Nobody is suggesting that everyone is at fault in their actions.
Traffic is at lower levels, we have absolutely no way of knowing who is flouting the rules in the general setting of, say, a motorway or a city. Obviously the bikers I see out in the peaks at the weekend etc are for more blatant but in the regular week it is impossible to say. That is my point.
Paul L
coffee lounge for me
Traffic is generally still lower in my experience but boy it busy out there with cyclists! And walkers, and cars parked at the usual spots (Box Hill and nearby Stepping Stones as examples) and I haven't wandered near any of the well known parks to see how those are.