AIBU to think that people should legally be required to stick to a certain travel zone around their house?

[chomalungma]

It won't stop Covid.
But it will reduce the number of people from an infected area going to another area with lower infections.
Maybe say a 10 mile zone - unless you have a really good reason (such as it's the nearest food shop, hospital, GP - or caring for someone)

It should stop people going to pubs etc, shops from areas of high infection.

Our Tier 2 city has just gone to Tier 3. We had a lot of people from other cities come to our city over December.

My support bubble lives 100 miles away. I really need to see them.

It worked in Spain, and possibly France?

People had to print off a permit, if you were stopped and didn't have it you were fined.

Exactly. Both Spain and France. Probably others too. Every time you left your home you had to carry a piece a paper stating reason, destination and what time you'd left your house.

However, people complied with this 9 months ago. Not sure anyone would do it now... we need sensible precautions but we can't just lock everyone in again.

It’s not surprising you’ve come up with a completely arbitrary 10 miles if you are in york, a flat isolated city surrounded by countryside and peppered with small villages. If you drew 10 miles round my place you’d encompass three cities and two large town centres not to mention suburbs and village centres too. If you drew 10 miles round some others you’d get some trees and a petrol station.

Are you planning on stopping all train travel? Buses too? Or just cars?

I walked around 15 miles yesterday from my front door, should that be allowed? Or not?

How about people on the coast? Will they be allowed 20 miles inland to compensate for the fact that half their available 10 mile radius is open sea? What about ferry crossings?

France and Spain did it in conjunction with a lockdown. OP is saying no lockdown, just get out of her city.

Sorry. Shouldn’t assume you are a her.

This is one of the most unthought out plans of the pandemic so far and that's really saying something with the state of the country and gov.

@EileenGC

It worked in Spain, and possibly France?

People had to print off a permit, if you were stopped and didn't have it you were fined.

Exactly. Both Spain and France. Probably others too. Every time you left your home you had to carry a piece a paper stating reason, destination and what time you'd left your house.

However, people complied with this 9 months ago. Not sure anyone would do it now... we need sensible precautions but we can't just lock everyone in again.

We're back doing it now in Italy. Dp works in a different town so has to take his form in case the roadblocks stop him. It ends on the 6th so we'll see how it goes after that.

Support bubbles/caring responsibilities require many to travel distances. I have to travel NE to NW to provide respite care, provide transport to appointments. You cant have blanket rules.

I have family in France. None of them ever got their permit checked and after a couple of weeks none of them bothered with it.

Also, who has a printer at home? Most people I know don't.

Lastly, if you're going to make unnecessary journeys then surely you'd just lie on the form.

@chomalungma

Also what if you live near the border of another tier? Is your 10 mile rule only 10 miles in your own tier? Or is it 10 miles in any direction regardless of tier

10 miles around your house.
Any direction.

It wouldn't stop contacts.
But it would reduce contacts.
Until the vaccine has been given a chance to be effective.

I live 10 miles from Central London. The area of a circle measuring 10 miles in radius is 804(ish) km 2. The average population density in London is 5,071 per km 2. 804 x 5071 = 4,077,084 people.

At a rate of 808 per 10,000 people in London as of Christmas Eve, that statistically puts me in potential contact with a smidge under 33,000 people who have already tested positive (and the rate is apparently increasing, hence the extra measures).

How does 'restricting my movements to ten miles in any direction make a difference when we're talking orders of magnitude like that?

Reducing it to 3 miles, or even just 1 mile, still puts me potentially in contact with so many people that it doesn't make much of a difference in limiting transmission. It's how cities work - we're packed in on top of one another everywhere we go.

What proportion of people who left the house in France and Spain were stopped and had their papers checked?

@SideboardOfDoom

What proportion of people who left the house in France and Spain were stopped and had their papers checked?

I don't think they've published national statistics, but my parents who live in one of those countries were checked at least 50% of the time.

They work (not retired there) so were out and about every day. One of my parents crosses a county line every time he goes to pick up supplies for his work. During spring lockdown (March-May) and the current local border closures, he's been checked every single time he's tried to cross the border. Which isn't a border, is just a road with policemen on it stopping the cars.

To a PP, it didn't have to be printed. You could hand write it yourself, or fill the form on your phone and present that. It had to be dated and timed, so there were no ways around it.

Frick sake, we have just gone back in to full lockdown, only 5km from your house for leisure.

500e fine, for being found outside your 5km without a legitimate reason.

I am so sick of walking/running in the same area.

@SideboardOfDoom

What proportion of people who left the house in France and Spain were stopped and had their papers checked?

I don't know about those countries but ours were checked almost daily. Dp's work had to sign part of his too saying that was why he was out of town. We could also have ours downloaded onto our phones if you didn't have a printer.

In France, in the first lockdown 1.1 million fines were issued.

I had my papers checked a couple of times and when they introduced the 1km rule the police would GPS check the distance you were from home.

If you had to go to work your employer had to give you an authorisation letter with days and times you were expected to be travelling in.

With food you could go beyond 1km BUT not if it meant you passed by different supermarkets to go to your favourite.

Medical appointments were allowed.

And in the 2nd lockdown our school issued us papers (1 per child) allowing us to be in the streets to take the DC to school.

Trust me, I had my papers every single time I went out. 135euros fine was a huge incentive and you knew that they didn't issues warnings, just fines.

This was done in Melbourne during the last lockdown: no travel outside 5K of home except for work, medical, DV and compassionate reasons. Schools were closed.

Worker had to carry a pass signed off by their employer for the days and hours they were outside the zone. Checked by police. If self-employed and breaking restrictions, they were fined, if employed then the employer was fined.

Interesting responses, I’d assumed it wasn’t really something that would get checked.

I get what you're saying but try living in rural NE Scotland. We had a 5 mile limit during the original lockdown which was a total farce and clearly assumed everyone lived in cities. 10 miles doesn't get me a pint of milk!!!!!!

I dont think it’s that stupid an idea but you’ve only got to read the responses so far to see that everyone has got an excuse why it wouldn’t work for them and their personal circumstances so it would never be successful even if it was enforced 🙄

So you want pubs and restaurants and live music but don’t want other folk to enjoy the same.

Okaaay

everyone has got an excuse why it wouldn’t work for them

It's not an excuse to say the GP, food shops, hospitals etc are all more than the suggested distance away. It's the reality of living rurally.
(Heck, it's 6 miles to my nearest main road!)

@JayAlfredPrufrock

So you want pubs and restaurants and live music but don’t want other folk to enjoy the same.

Okaaay

Other folk can enjoy it in their area.

Other folk can enjoy it in their area.

Ha ha ha ha ha ha...in our very small village in the middle of a load of fields. Hurrah!!!

People don’t give a shit.

I work somewhere that has the address on the booking system and there have been plenty of people visiting from all tiers since the last lockdown ended.

So now we’ve jumped from tier 1 to 3 in five days.

totally unenforceable but not a bad idea.
Wales had a five mile rule for ages, although you could go further to work.
I think the main issue is that I live on the outskirts of a large city, and have easy access to green spaces and parks. The city I live on the outskirts of, doesn't really have any. So mean to say that people who live innercity can't access green spaces which is what this would effectively do.