Driving to exercise - updated guidance?

[Goatymcgoaty]

First you could.
Then you couldn’t.
Gov.uk now says this:

14. Can I drive to a national park or other green space to walk? We advise you to stay local and use open spaces near to your home where possible – do not travel unnecessarily.

Why are they being so ambiguous about this? Can you drive if you stay local? At what point does it become “unnecessary”? Guidance seems to be changing quite quickly on a lot of of the FAQ’s. What’s everyone else now doing?

What gets me is all the people suddenly running, riding their bikes and going for walks

I used to get all my exercise by playing sport at a club and walking as a part of my commute to work - now I don't do either of these, so please don't begrudge me a walk in the park.

I can understand why people shouldn’t drive miles and miles to go for a walk up a mountain or to the middle of nowhere, but I don’t understand the harm in driving a short distance to a country park? The park where I used to walk pre-lockdown is 8 mins drive away, but 35-40 mins walk to the nearest entrance - so to go there, I’d have to be out of the house for 2+ hours. The walk there is along residential streets and main roads, and a lot of people around my area, particularly couples and families, don’t seem to understand single file walking and/or social distancing, which has meant me spending half of my time walking on the road to maintain an acceptable distance. Surely this is more dangerous?

I’ve noticed my local park is closed. As a result, the pavements are busy. Defeats the purpose really

That might well be considered reasonable, sweetheart - if it really does allow for better distancing.

It is interesting I agree to see how popular exercise has suddenly become😊 but that's a good thing isn't it🤩as long as people are appropriately socially distancing where is the harm?

It's hardly surprising that exercise outdoors has increased because there will be a lot of people who have previously been in sports clubs, went swimming, gone to the gym and other exercise forms who are now running/cycling.

I enjoy mountain biking and think road cycling is boring, but I'm probably going to go out for a road ride because I can't justify driving to go mountain biking.

My take on this, and I wish they'd spell this out, is that more traffic increases the possibly, slim but possible, of traffic accidents which add more strain to hospitals and police services.

I'd weigh it up in personal circumstances, especially with an Sen child, but if it's possible at home and locally, stay there.

Also, a friend at the coast says that she feels near impossible to go out on sunny days herself, locally, as it's so busy. People must be coming in from elsewhere she reckons.

My take on this, and I wish they'd spell this out, is that more traffic increases the possibly, slim but possible, of traffic accidents which add more strain to hospitals and police services.

That’s not the reason they’re asking people not to drive to exercise though. It’s because people were congregating at beauty spots.

The thing is there are plenty of walls a short drive ( 2-5 miles) from us in places that are not particularly beauty spots or that pretty but they are far less crowded than the walks that can be done from our home so driving to these probably is better that walking locally where you pass people every couple of minutes

Exactly bumbling, driving locally to somewhere quiet causes no issue at all. Driving miles to a beauty spot that’s really busy is the problem. That’s probably why they haven’t explicitly banned driving to exercise.

I have put on half a stone because my local off-lead dog exercise area (which I walk to) is closed thanks to the crowds of people who drove here on Mother’s Day. I now can only walk along a busy road with the dog on a lead which is not exercise, it is a stop and sniff hour of frustration.

My common sense tells me that it is a necessary journey to travel 1.5 miles to the woods to exercise my dogs, because I live on a rural road with no pavement and a 60 mph speed limit

Also it's important to remember that the requirements are about containing the spread of the virus, not increasing the net sum of human misery, so I look at everything under that lens

Also, it would be incredibly difficult to write a law that captures all edge cases ( like the SEN child upthread) , and it is better if people can get outside and exercise

So they are relying on enough people having sufficient common sense. Clearly in some other countries that approach didn't work , too many people took liberties within the letter but not the spirit of the law and exercise was banned outright

So instead of thinking what can I get away with, think what is considered best for the country ...even if you go somewhere quiet the backend analysis isn't going to account for people density at each beauty spot, it's going to work on raw numbers , x cars passed this camera, y mobile phones detected , z cars along this roadside

Excercise is neccesary! I had knee surgery the week before the lockdown and my physio has been cancelled. Due to inactivity i have put on a stone and a half and if i dont excercise, i will not be able to get the full flextention of my knee. Everyone's circumstances is different!

I'm inclined to agree with you LimitIsUp, the problem is that for some people anything that isn't doing what they want, when they want is an exercise in misery and they don't see why they shouldn't do what they like.

My friend's village has ended up with lots of cars parked on the verges. There's also lots of footpaths from their village and local villages. The residents are all walking from home, so it's reasonable to conclude that people are driving specifically to go somewhere nice.
Someone we know in another town drove 45 minutes to the beach to exercise their dog when they live in a village with multiple footpaths.

I'd love to go mountain biking and could get to some nice trails by driving 20 mins, but I don't need to, it's an unnecessary journey and I'm not a petulant child about to say "but it's not against the law so you can't stop me".

The government don't want you to travel unnecessarily. I'd say that means exercising locally. Of course if people want to push the boundaries just out of some petulant wont, to stick two fingers up to authority, then they can. Bear in mind every tiny little step multiplied by thousands of people doing that up and down the country will keep the virus spreading and potentially kill folk.

But who cares about that eh? As long as you can continue to do whatever you like.

Such a shame that selfish idiots have spoiled other people's local area by either causing them to be closed or making them busier than they should be.

We've found local paths that few locals seem to know about or bother with. They're nothing like as scenic as places just a few miles away. But if you take a positive attitude there's lots to enjoy, especially in spring. Through the village, the gardens - magnolia, lilac nearly in bloom etc. In the fields, wildflowers and birds. I wouldn't have really expected to see an oystercatcher or a lapwing hereabouts, but I have. Yesterday a zephyr of bumbarrels (added enjoyment from collective nouns and country names )

Obviously living in a rural area, even an 'ordinary' one is an advantage at the moment, but the past we've walked in cities and suburbia - few places are really dull if you look and listen.

Interesting thread in hindsight!

What I’ve noticed is the number of people who I’ve never seen with a dog are now walking dogs. Someone walked out a house round the corner with two dogs the other day (not puppies) I had never seen them before. There’s also an elderly man walks his equally elderly dog up and down the street about 6 times a day, I think it’s for something to do bless him, they both poodle up and down the street saying hello to everyone.

What has been good is the number of people who have posted about local trails and walks they never knew existed before.

“I've never seen so many people exercising in all my life.”

Don’t forget, some of those may have previously been using the gym or maybe exercised by walking the 2 miles to the office. I’ve got back into running outside because the weather is lovely and I can’t go to the gym. I normally use the gym during the winter and then switch to outside during the spring/summer. I observe social distancing when I’m running and stick to paths that are wider and less popular, I make the effort to move out of the way and stop if necessary. Lots of people don’t seem to bother and I see so many people just walking down the middle of the path when they can quite easily move to the side of the path to allow a better distance between me and them. This includes walkers, cyclists and dog walkers and other runners.

I don’t understand why anyone would get worked up over someone exercising. As a nation we have the opportunity to change our outlook on fitness and exercise and your rolling your eyes at someone who’s trying to get healthy

At the time I posted this I was scared to even drive a mile to my fathers home to see if he was ok. Driving = bad and people would die. Sitting on a bench = bad and people would definitely die.

Looking back I feel a fool. The whole thing is just a sad mess.

Don’t forget, some of those may have previously been using the gym or maybe exercised by walking the 2 miles to the office

Or they might have been furloughed from an active job like waiting tables in a restaurant etc and they want to keep active out in the nice weather rather than slobbing round the house.

I've always exercised outdoors and have jokingly hoped that all the extra people cluttering up the hills woods and trails that were previously deserted would soon get fed up and go do something else out of my way, but they have just as much right to be there as I do and it's good that people are getting out and being active.