Outside walks and people

[CharlotteRose90]

No hate please but I’m hoping I’m not the only one.

So me and my mum have been going for walks with the dog and it’s making me so angry what people are doing. Walking so close to us and not keeping distance. We’re both in the vulnerable category and I’ve said so many times to people to move away.

I completely get you don’t have to wear a mask but don’t walk next to or behind people you don’t know. The park we choose today had a massive path and people still did it. I ended up shouting at this woman for standing next to my mum and coughing.

Rant over. I’m hoping I’m not crazy

@CharlotteRose90 you do know masks protect others from you not you from them, don't you?

YANBU - out for a walk on NYE, waited at a distance for a family of 5 with their dog to come through tbe park gates. They saw me waiting (and the elderly couple behind me) but bimbled, fussed and eventually waltzed past, avoiding eye contact and not even a "Thank you" !!!
I won't even mention the number of times I have to walk in the road to distance because some people are incapable of temporarily walking single file 🙄

i walk through a park on my way to work and behind an elderly lady, heading towards us an elderly man, both of them decided to walk in the wet grass to pass each other rather than stick to the path

i do not have that kind of fear

[quote supersonicginandtonic]@CharlotteRose90 you do know masks protect others from you not you from them, don't you? [/quote]
I am pretty sure it works both ways.

i am pretty sure dogs are not carriers.

Oh it is frustrating. I tend to look way ahead and cross to avoid people. Then I get the rage if they also cross 😂
If it's a narrow path, people seem to give me a wide berth. I've got that kind of demeanour.
I was like this before covid, I'm more anxious around ppl than alone.
Either try to avoid or accept that ppl will piss you off and get in your space. But despite this, walks are good for sanity.

@Skipsurvey

i am pretty sure dogs are not carriers.

They're not. That shit was debunked months ago.

Most people round here are pretty good and remember the social distancing guidance still applies when outdoors, and take heed of the signs in the park to remind them. But there is a large minority that just don't give enough space, even when possible, and that makes me a bit cross. I realise the risk of catching covid from passing someone in the street is minimal, but it just seems bad manners for them not to pass single file and on their side of the path when they easily could. I've contemplated coughing as they approach to remind them but that seems stupidly passive aggressive, so I just have to grit my teeth and inwardly roll my eyes. Thoughtless buggers 🙄

dd and dh want to go to the seaside to walk on the prom, i imagine it is heaving with people there, so if they want to go i am afraid i will not accompany them, i am sorry that they feel stuck in our village, particularly dd who has left london and moved back home, but join me and put your wellies on and walk across the fields!

I can see both sides
I hate big groups of latte sipping mums with no consideration for others. People who dramatically jump out of your way equally annoy me. I was walking with DD the other day on a path that was wide enough for two groups of two to pass with plenty of room. Some hysterical women kept trilling ‘single file please’ at everyone she walked past. If you’re that bothered go off the beaten track and don’t frequent parks and popular walks

Skipsurvey cloth and surgical masks trap droplets released when the wrarer breathes or talks and mainly protect others from the wearer. They provide some (but far less) protection to the wearer. For cloth or surgical masks to make a significant difference everyone needs to wear them.

Ffp2 masks (also called N95 masks) protect zhe wearer from 95% of other people's airborn droplets.

You'd need to wear an FFP2 mask to protect yourself from non mask wearing carriers.

(Some of the survivalist style, often full face, reusuable gas mask type respirator masks you occassionally see actually only protect the wearer and not others as they have a one way valve, but luckily few people wear those).

All you people saying that dogs aren't carriers and that it got debunked should probably do your research! It's not been debunked it's actually a fact that animals and pets carry the disease and national geographic actually did an article about the first dog to die after testing positive for Covid back in July. Also www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/daily-life-coping/positive-pet.html there's some information for all the media dummies that believe the news before science :)

I'm fed up of people expecting me, my three year old and one year old to be the ones moving out of the way all the time. My kids know to give people distance and generally they do this. But if you are one adult on your own, don't stand there tutting and expecting me to grab them both and stop constantly. Go around us if you are in a hurry!

That article you linked to says:

"A small number of pets (cats and dogs) have been confirmed to be infected with the virus that causes COVID-19, mostly after close contact with a person with COVID-19"
So presumably you won't encounter them on dog walks since they have contracted the illness from their owner who is at home with them, self isolating. Virtually nil risk

So presumably you won't encounter them on dog walks since they have contracted the illness from their owner who is at home with them

Unless they got coughed on. Like OP's mum. Imagine, intentionally transmitting C-19 to somebody by maliciously coughing on their dog.

@BackforGood
While I realise it can sometimes be difficult to assess tone in a written post and I'm sure some posters are well meaning, in many of the posts telling the OP to find a more suitable time/place to walk I'm not reading helpfulness. There is quite a bit of nastiness, almost a 'them' and 'us' mentality, with some even suggesting that vulnerable individuals should stay away from healthy people and let them get on with their lives. That's a train of thought I'd rather not explore.

ClinkyMonkey I don’t think it’s nasty or them and us.

In my local park it is simply impossible to have full social distancing at all times, at least on the paths, because there are just so many people using the park. Sometimes people have no choice but to pass each other quite closely - albeit only for a few seconds.

If people are not happy with that small level of risk then they need to find somewhere/some time less busy. That might mean keeping off the paths (OP was on or right by the path, she didn’t need to be) or not going to the park at all. That’s not being nasty IMO, it’s just the only option available.

@kungfupannda

I think there is a strange effect at work in open spaces - people seem drawn together by some sort of magnetic force. I've noticed it on a huge, quiet beach I sometimes go to. I can be sitting on a patch of sand, and the only other person on the beach will walk so close that they nearly tread on me.

I've noticed it on the paths and lanes round our village recently. We're within walking distance of the edge of town and a few more people have discovered the nice walks round here during lockdown. It's still very quiet - we might meet two or three other families or dog-walkers while out for a longish walk, but rarely more than that. But quite a lot of the people we do meet are very hard to avoid. If you move to the side of the path, they either move to the same side or carry on three or four abreast so you can't actually pass each other. If you have room to move off the path, they will gravitate towards you so you finish up going further and further off to the side trying not to collide with them. If you step into a gateway to make room, you can pretty much guarantee that they will decide they also want to stop in the same place.

I think when they're out walking and feeling relaxed, a lot of people switch off the bit of their brain that's used for dealing with other people, and don't really register that they're not skipping through fields alone. They're generally nice and smiley while veering off at ninety degrees to walk straight at you.

I couldn't agree more.

When we are out walking and meet someone coming the other way, DP and I will move right over, step into someone's garden or into the gutter and still some people move towards us.......... why!?!?

@Ifailed

It’s the only place people can go so of course they are full

Tosh. There are plenty of quiet places people can go, just takes a little bit of aforethought to pick somewhere unpopular.

Sadly, this is not the case in SE London. :( it is just rammed.

@Chottie, I used to live there, and have to disagree. There's the green-chain walk for a start, with many spurs off it. I managed to walk it all over the space of a year and it was pretty well empty everyday.
People just need to think a bit, don't head for the local park as it will be busy, but look at all the footpaths there are that link them up and take you out to the country.
Living in SE London you are blessed with a pretty good train and bus network so can easily get to a good starting point. Even under tier 4 (like I am in Kent),we are allowed to travel to exercise.

YANBU. I’m constantly baffled as to why people keep walking towards me on narrow pavements in lines of 3 or 4 and don’t go single file for 20 seconds so we can pass each other easily.

I think YABU to some extent. If you’re that vulnerable and/or concerned then you may just have to go somewhere less busy. Obviously it depends where you live but in general parks around here are busy, the average suburban road or estate have a lot less pedestrians. So maybe a trade off you need to consider?

My bugbear in parks at the moment are those groups of people who instead of going single file to pass you sort of form a clump and stop on the path while we go single file past them. And sometimes they seem to think they are doing you a favour and deserve thanking by stopping to let you pass when actually the opposite is true. If they’d just walked in single file we’d all get past each other a lot more efficiently, plus anyone walking behind them wouldn’t inadvertently join their ‘clump’!

We tried to go to the park today bt it was rammed! Turned back and went to a local housing estate where there's never ever anyone out and my kid cd ride a bike lots in peace and I walked around

@IntermittentParps

YANBU. I’m constantly baffled as to why people keep walking towards me on narrow pavements in lines of 3 or 4 and don’t go single file for 20 seconds so we can pass each other easily.

Absolutely this. I nearly got mown down by a pair of runners this afternoon and basically had to climb in the hedge to avoid being knocked over by one of them. The pavement is only wide enough for two to pass in single file. Apparently they could not possibly run single file for a couple of seconds...instead they just essentially expected me to cease to exist so they can run through the exact spot I was in.

I agree OP, and with the new variant spreading so much easier I reckon it means you can get it just from walking too close to people outside.