Are people driving to exercise?

[confusedofengland]

I am having a bit of a rubbish half term & finding it difficult to keep the DC entertained, as well as feeling a bit bored myself. We are lucky enough to live in a village with 2 decent playgrounds plus a good half dozen decent walks, but we have done them all to death since March! The recent wet weather hasn't helped either, as a lot are too muddy to be passable. But we are sticking with it & going on a bike ride tomorrow to mix things up a bit.

However, I am noticing that more & more people are driving to parks/woods in other towns with their DC & I am dreaming of doing the same myself, but can't bring myself to until guidelines allow. I am talking anything up to 30 mins drive away (12-15 miles).

I do drive - to shop for food & care for my elderly grandparents - so I don't know if that makes me hypocritical? We have also been going to playgrounds regularly. One friend says that she is comfortable with the risk she is taking because they have only just started going to playgrounds as they are bored of our village.

So, I just wondered, is everybody driving for exercise and am I being over cautious in not doing so? I feel like I'm the only one! We're in England btw (I think rules/guidelines are different elsewhere).

I live in a built up area but I’m lucky to have a lovely park at the end of my road. It takes about 15mins to walk around, and that’s the only place we’ve exercised since lockdown started. I’ve booked a NT slot for tomorrow, (15miles away/30minutes drive) I’m looking forward to going for a longer walk and having a change of scenery - I think it’s important for mental health. Also NT limit the numbers coming in whereas my local park can’t. After tomorrow we’ll be back to walking around the park at the end of the road for the foreseeable.

Driving to shop or care for elderly relatives doesn’t make you a hypocrite! How else are you going to do these jobs??
I have been travelling within about a 10 minutes drive radius to mix up our trips out.

there was no traffic at all during the first lockdown.

The traffic is absolutely normal these days - here at least-. Everybody is driving!

I think most people are driving about - the traffic is certainly pretty busy. We’re like you - plenty of walkable walks and playgrounds but we’ve just done them too many times since March ... a couple of times this week I’ve driven about 20 mins to walk somewhere different

My (very rural) county constabulary are very explicitly saying that driving to take exercise is only permissible if you just can't exercise by walking out your own door. They were telling people off for 20 minute drives last year, too.

There are lots of surfers in Cromer. I'd wager real money that virtually none of them live in walking distance, much less hauled their boards down to beach, barefoot in wetsuits. No copper is gonna wade out in the freezing surf to levy fines on them, so that is the real way you know if you'll get away with it.

DH can and would legally cycle 80 miles each way for fun but if I drive 8 miles to go for a walk or run, I'm at risk of being fined. Pah.

We have been driving to go on walks. They have all been in the local area (5-10 minutes' drive away) apart from one time last week when we drove somewhere else about 40 minutes away. The car parks have all been very full so plenty of people appear to be doing the same, unlike in the spring lockdown when they were closed. If I'm on my own, I usually just walk from my house, but if we are going with the children, we often drive as otherwise it takes about 15 minutes to get out of the built-up area.

My (very rural) county constabulary are very explicitly saying that driving to take exercise is only permissible if you just can't exercise by walking out your own door. They were telling people off for 20 minute drives last year, too.

Has anyone challenged those fines? The law doesn’t ban driving to exercise in England.

This is what the government guidance says...

Exercising
You should minimise time spent outside your home, but you can leave your home to exercise. This should be limited to once per day, and you should not travel outside your local area.

And later...

outdoor exercise. This should be done locally wherever possible, but you can travel a short distance within your area to do so if necessary (for example, to access an open space)

@PurpleDaisies this is where it seems vague though. For me, for example, it is not necessary to drive to access an open space - I have several within easy walking distance, as do my friends who have been driving to other places. It's just that we are all fed up with them. So does this mean we can or we can't? I would much rather have something definite to go on such as a distance or a specific 'you must not'.

The definition of local is vague. Whether you can exercise locally is not. That is clearly allowed.

It’s up to you if you want to add extra rules to make yourself more miserable,

Are we not allowed to drive for exercise?

Oops

Seriously though, there is no law against driving for exercise.

I haven’t until this week. Drove to a local town to pay money into the bank - it’s shut. So took child to park, which was rammed, so we just had a walk instead.

Went to a large town much further away today to do the banking I couldn’t do earlier in the week and went to a nearby enormous park whilst there. Felt like a holiday.

“Local” is very vague. I can be in another borough by walking for less than five minutes and another county and police area by walking for half an hour in the other direction. I can drive for 15-20 minutes to work and still be in my own borough though......

Yes you can, op. They can’t put specific distances etc in the guidelines. Because people live in varied locations. Just be sensible about it. If you go a bit further afield go early morning or late into the evening or just before dusk if you need the light. Try to avoid a sat afternoon on a busy playground. etc. etc.

@PurpleDaisies believe me, I don't want to 'make myself more miserable' I want to understand the rules & guidance clearly. The part of your quote which I queried was about accessing open spaces, which I can do by foot. So to me it's not clear whether I should stick with those like I have been doing, or if I can go further. It seems from this thread that most other people are happy driving a small distance, so maybe I should take my lead from that.

Look at the link I shared earlier where two women were initially fined for driving and meeting up to exercise. The police were forced to apologise and withdraw the fine.

Travelling LOCALLY to exercise is permitted.

We've generally been staying within roughly a 5 mile radius of home for exercise, but we are lucky to have countryside nearby so no need to travel any further. I know of friends who are taking no notice and are having days out a couple of hours away, and other friends who aren't even leaving the house. We seem to sit in the middle, along with most friends!

I live alone in a city centre. Walks after work in the dark and rain on pavements are pretty unappealing and sometimes don’t feel safe. If I meet a friend for a walk I would drive a few miles out of the city so we can walk round fields where we can socially distance. For me it’s safer from more than one point of view.

I have posted before about the police heavily policing the woods near us and giving written warnings to people from our village who had driven the 3 miles to walk or sledge in what we have always viewed as our local woods. We are beginning to wonder if there is some James Bond style secret facility up there, the level of policing they have there during this lockdown.

In contrast, I drove 5 miles to meet a friend to walk along the seafront in town and saw not one police person in the 2 hours plus we were walking.

I have encouraged my parents (when it isn't snowy or icy) to drive 3.6 miles to a nearby hamlet where they can walk on a quiet flat country lane. They can walk round the block where they are, and did that daily during the first lockdown, but there is so much more traffic this time and it really distresses my mum. But my dad is really scared of getting into trouble.

Different police forces are definitely defining 'local' in different ways.

Yes, I live in a city and not very near any decent green space. I'm not denying my kids nature for a whole year.

I've been driving about 5 moles away, but sometimes more as recent bad weather means lots of our usual routes are impassible. Did a nice circular walk yesterday, about a 25 min drove away. 5 mile walk and hardly saw a soul so lovely and safe! Did still have to paddle through very large puddles though.

And police forces don't need to define "local" at all as it's not in the legislation, which is what they can enforce.

It’s ok to drive, I think ...
We just got back from a park about ten mins drove away.

@PurpleDaisies

By definition, this would mean that you should stay very local (within a radius of 2-3 miles for most).

Where have you got those numbers from? My local supermarket is further away than that.

Boris Johnson was cycling seven miles away. That was fine.

The women walking at Foremark reservoir had travelled five miles to get there. That was fine.

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.bbc.com/news/amp/uk-england-derbyshire-55625062

It says “stay local” not “stay very local”. I really wish posters would stop inventing new rules.

But if your nearest supermarket is 5 miles away (as is mine), that's your local supermarket and you couldn't do essential shopping closer to home (I don't think anyone would expect you to make do with the local village shop for weeks on end).

However, it's very unlikely that you could not exercise within your village, town or part of your city as per the rules for travelling. 'Exercising' means just that - having a walk, run, bike ride etc. to maintain personal fitness, not taking a day trip to the beach, country park or moors because it's a nicer environment. Boris was 7 miles from home on a bike. A 7 mile bike ride isn't very far, I don't see what's wrong with that. If he'd driven for 7 miles to walk 1/2 mile along the beach, that would be different.
The point of lockdown is that you should stay at home unless absolutely necessary to go out, and when you do go out, stay as close to home as possible.

@CottonSock

Yes, I live in a city and not very near any decent green space. I'm not denying my kids nature for a whole year.

That's fine. It says that you can travel further afield to access open space for exercise.

We drove to the next village to start a walk for a change of scenery but have been hesitant to go to the further places we sometimes walk usually.