Am I being a complete idiot? Help me see the issue

[quicknamechangearoonie]

My issue is exercise.
The guidance is so bloody murky. Conflicting advice all over the show.
Police in England publicly shaming people for taking their dog a walk in the Peak District.

Now, if these people had "decamped" to their second home in the Peaks, putting unnecessary strain on the shops and resources, fell ill and had to be taken to hospital there (again, putting extra strain on resources that hadn't accounted for these extra numbers), then I certainly see the issue. Also, the potential of bringing the virus with them when they "decamped". Irresponsible and selfish.

Now, sticking the dog in the car with a few sandwiches and drinks and driving say an hour to walk in a massive national park where it would be fairly easy to stay two meters from another person they may encounter, then driving home again.
To me, the likelihood of spreading the virus this way is very low.

1. Your outside
2. You take everything home with you
3. You're unlikely to be touching anything (unless you have to open a gate)
4. It's secluded so your interaction with others is reduced.

If everyone around where I live was to only walk around their streets/area, people would have to stand on the road to allow others to pass and maintain their distance, we're walking beside noisy main roads (I have a 4 year old DD who loves her scooter) and the same route everyday gets very grating.

I could drive for 5/10 minutes to walk in a fairly secluded area with my children where it's safe, a change of scenery and easy to maintain distance. But is this frowned upon?

I'm so confused!!!!!!!

The restrictions are not really that "murky" to be fair
Only shop for essentials, food and medicine
Only exercise by walking, running or cycling

Why not give the police a break - if you (& a lot of others who are much less sensible) are out then the police need to police you and the rest. They are over stretched themselves due to the virus and shouldn't have to waste their time dealing with idiots (a label which I will restrict as referring to idiots other than you).

Your car may be new (so you're lucky or rich) but the car that blows it's tire in front of you on the motorway may not be and when you and those in your car are in that accident you will be clogging up the hospitals, possibly in an under resourced rural area, thus restricting the help they can give to those with the virus, or who are giving birth, or getting cancer treatment.

So basically - yes YABU. completely.

But one of those taking the press release the other day said that it was "reasonable" to drive up to 5 minutes or so away from home in order to exercise.
So it would appear there is a mixed message.

driving an hour away for exercise no-going 5 minutes up the road ok

but where does it end if they say yes go and do yo9ur exercise wherever you like that'll be thousands flocking to these places

they turned away people from folkstone yesterday who drove an hour why are people still doing it

said that it was "reasonable" to drive up to 5 minutes or so away from home in order to exercise.

If the purpose of the outing was exercise, why on earth would you drive 5 minutes in the car, when walking the same distance would give you the exercise you needed?

if I stick to the rules then this shit will end sooner!

It's the exact opposite. The measures are intended to slow things down, so it will all take longer, but hopefully fewer people will die because it's more spread out so resources will be available to treat them. It would be much quicker to just carry on as normal.

I don't understand why it's so difficult to find somewhere local to walk. Just walk along the streets. I've lived in lots of built up areas and I can't think of one place where it wouldn't be possible to walk down some quiet streets where you wouldn't be bumping into a constant stream of people. I am yet to see people posting pictures of residential streets heavy with people taking a walk. Yes, you might have to cross the street or stand aside now and then but not like walking along the paths of the parks we've seen that are also full of bikes.

People decide to go to the same places everyone else is heading to for a nice day out and they are basically selfish idiots.

I read somewhere that there were police at Brighton railway station yesterday turning hundreds of non resident people back

Do what is best for your mental health

Some of us are sticking to the rules rigorously and just trying to manage our mental health as best we can, at home.

Just like another poster said, I'm having bouts of just bursting in to tears, I'm just doing my best but I will not be going off in the car with a picnic and my bloody dog.

My or your mental health does not trump physical health. I'd rather be alive and sort my head out at the end of all this than I would go off for a day trip and risk dying.

exactly hostess the message isnt getting through

I live next to woodland and footpaths start from my house. Normally, I walk / cycle in the woods about 5 times a week and it’s pretty quiet, maybe see 1 or 2 other people.

At the moment it’s heaving. People are driving, parking on my road and walking in the woods. So the people for whom that is actually their local walk ( eg me) are now staying in or going really early/late.

Also there’s a lot of people not respecting the country code - dogs off leads, pestering livestock, dog poo everywhere, out of control kids not keeping their distance .....

I have no problem with driving a short distance to exercise if it means you can then exercise somewhere genuinely isolated. But the people parking outside my house to walk in countryside close to a large town are kidding themselves. They are not welcome.

I live quite rurally one the edge of a small town.
My house is on a windy country road with no footpath, frequented by farm vehicles as well as cars etc, and is a national speed limit road, it actually feels very unsafe to walk along it.
To get to the woods where I usually walk my dog (where I rarely , if ever see another person) is a 15 minute walk along this road, or a 2 minute drive in the car.
I don't think it's unreasonable to drive the 2 minutes to the woods and then walk for an hour.

I do think it's unreasonable to drive an hour to spend all day with a picnic somewhere.

FFS. Your update is full of I I me. The whole fucking point of this is that you are one family. Multiply that by every single other family and you get hoards of people gathering in the same place. They may not have a sodding emergency pack, or half a tank of petrol. Rules like this can't be granular. They have to be broad. So it means every one. Including you! You aren't more special or entitled to drive to exercise than anyone else. So why should you do it over everyone else.

Seriously people have gone over to the thick side.

This is what Matt Hancock said in Question Time this week:

We have got a great Country park near us.

We often cycle there and DC love it.

There are woods we can walk in and a large green space they could run about in.

Obv play equipment will be shut off.

We won't go though as the car park is still open.

It will be busy with dog walkers and families who have driven there.

It does seem a little unfair as it's our local environment but I don't want to risk it or potentially risk others.

@Hoppinggreen

Exactly. The virus does not give a shit if you consider you're being sensible, or using common sense or 'technically' following the rules. If you're there and it's there you are likely to be infected. That infection is going to not just affect you. So by not being there, or by only being there when it's a necessity, you're reducing the risk.

Do what is best for your mental health and risk others’ health?????

The Lakes is sadly still seeing walkers and cyclists come through, yes touching gates and yes we’ve had one accident of a cyclist going too fast round a corner and hitting a walker. We have so many corona cases here, people being sent off in ambulances, that’s happened three times in the last day. One neighbour has just died on his own in hospital.

Maybe it varies by area, but in the Lakes we’re being hit hard with this virus and VIDEOING EVERYONE WHO COMES THROUGH THE VALLEY. Including one dog walker today who’d driven an hour to walk his dog through three gates in a “deserted lane” he said, that actually is someone’s drive to their farm.

I don’t know why people think the virus isn’t in valleys and villages, you’re walking right into it

OP I agree that if you are sensible it is fairly easy to drive to truly quiet bits of the countryside. I am not talking about beauty spots. I often walk in the countryside and know the walks that would be crowded and those where I probably won't see anyone.
But this blanket ban is because people were driving to beauty spots, they were getting crowded and mountain rescue had to go out to rescue people who were lost.
They simply can't make rules that says if you are used to walking in the countryside and know very quiet places to walk, go ahead. Everyone else stay at home. It has to be a blanket rule.

I’m also so pissed because it seems 99% are sticking to the rules, and I can’t say how grateful I am for that. How this minority keeps looking for those loopholes.... think of bumping into someone grieving from corona (as our neighbours are), and then seeing these absolute oxygen thieves breaking the rules

I'm with you OP rather than telling us what not to do, suggesting people do low risk activities will make our lives better so crucially encourages compliance for a longer period. If my hiking put someone at risk I wouldn't do it but (unlike the op) I can walk from here to open countryside and not see anyone for hours, surely that's better for me (and the nation) as I stay healthier. I've probably had covid-19, just about recovered so I haven't been out but I'm not convinced cooping us up is helping with compliance

I am baffled by people using the excuse of living in a a built up area and the streets being too busy to allow social distancing. I live in a suburb of a city, not far from the local high street. I have been out for a walk roughly every other day, for about half an hour. I am walking past or through a small park and around residential streets and am trying to vary my route each time. Everywhere I have walked has been really quiet, sometimes eerily so. The park usually has a couple of dog walkers and and maybe 4 or 5 other people usually couples or single people. On some streets I come across literally nobody, on others I see an occasional person or family requiring me or them to cross the road.

The road I live on is normally pretty busy with both cars and people walking, and is a bit busier than the streets I take my walks on due to people heading to and from the supermarket, but it is still easy to keep 2m from anyone else. The residential streets are really not teeming with people out for walks.

A few weeks ago you could not walk outside where I live and maintain social distancing. I could see from my window how busy it was. Now it is eerily quiet.

@Hoppinggreen Thank you! I keep saying this too. People are arguing about essentials and loopholes, as if the only thing which matters is if they'll get in trouble. Like being 'allowed' will give them immunity from COVID.

Fact is, the more everyone goes out, the longer your'e out, the more places you go, the more risk you have of getting it.

COVID doesn't care if you can argue convincingly on MN that it's OK.

This really gets to me alot why on earth can't people Listen your not allowed to drive unless you really need to go for a walk near your house even my 8 year old gets it that we aren't alot out unless for shopping or for a very short walk round the block just follow the bloody rules it's not hard

I have police, fire and hospital all within half a mile of my house. Normally, the sirens are constant. Since lockdown they are few and far between. Almost definitely down to people no longer driving very much. Firstly, fewer accidents, secondly, it's easier for emergency services to get from A to B without having to put the blues and twos on.

Stay home.