Cycling in the time of Corona

Actual LOL.

Also. Our fucking neighbour decided to have some of what we think was her family around for a fucking BBQ yesterday - kids running around in the back garden and loads of fucking randoms stopping by.

My neighbours are doing similar. My fence is currently down, so I’m desperately trying to get the new fence up to reduce contact between them and us because my OH is high risk. Just this morning while I was digging out a post some woman wandered out into their garden who I’ve never seen before.

Luckily the lazy bastards don’t seem to get up until at least 11, so I get a decent crack at the work while they’re all still indoors.

Maybe if you weren't 100% sure that what you were doing was 100% the right thing, then maybe you wouldn't be spending so much time and effort trying to justify and find support for doing it. Maybe.
Just go and ride if you want to.

Edit: sorry, nobody needs italics in a situation like this.

one of the most low-risk activities there is

Yet I bet most of the people still cycling for leisure would never ride without their Magic Plastic Hat© at any given time.

Arguing about whether (and how far, how long) to go cycling in relation to Covid-19 looks a bit like becoming LFGSS's very own Brexit moment. Whatever opinion you have there are enough others on here who feel the same, to support your view either way, so no-one wins the argument, it just gets more and more shouty.

Magic Plastic Hat©

Does it stop the virus?

I think you need a hairdryer for that.

Only if it's aero enough, so the virus can't attach itself.

Or maybe, maybe, I now have enough time to spend all day getting pissed off about people's hysteria about going out for some fresh air. Also maybe, maybe, if you don't want to read about this discussion, don't go into a thread that is about literally exactly that.

@Lolo

Good god please let's not get started on that debate as well...

That seems like one weird trick, but what happens next may shock you.

It's just the optics of it all. A casual onlooker has no idea if the people they see riding around Richmond park are together or not. To them it just looks like, they're making deep and meaningful sacrifices while these twats use this an opportunity to enjoy themselves.

This helps them justify their own decisions.

Has this been resolved yet etc

This is me, right now. Total hero

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A very surreal ride around Regents Park yesterday morning. A lovely lack of cars on the way there through Hampstead, plenty of cyclists and joggers about, then cycling home through Camden was eerie.

Balance bike is nice.

I thought @Howard had popped round. Was going to call the police. Or get @Aroogah to do it for me.

Was the rider of the blue & yellow bike wearing a helmet?

Too big for you m8

I thought @Howard had popped round.

Looks a bit big for me, too.

There is a very big difference between going for a ride on your own, not touching anything but your bike, with a pretty considerable distance to any other human, and going to a fucking social gathering where you stand around in close proximity, possibly in a semi-enclosed area, and pass each other things.

I agree! But you're missing the point that some people are doing those things because their common sense tells them that it's fine to bend the rules. We need to be really careful that we're not doing the same (and being perceived as doing the same) because there is no a priori reason that anyone should trust our judgement and not theirs.

This

because there is no a priori reason that anyone should trust our judgement and not theirs.

But it's not really about 'our' vs 'their' judgement - one thing is something that is a group activity, the other one isn't (or at least doesn't have to be the way most people on here do it now). Refer to literally any person who knows something about disease spread to figure out which one is probably a lot more OK than the other.

Sure there's idiots who will justify doing a group activity to themselves somehow, but, well, they're just wrong about that and it's not exactly difficult to explain why it is a bad idea.

I hope no one saw you!

it's not exactly difficult to explain why it is a bad idea.

Did you miss it when more than 17 million people voted for Brexit? It's incredibly difficult to convince people that they're getting shit wrong. It's made near-impossible if they see people all around them apparently doing the same stuff they usually do. It doesn't matter that one is objectively wrong and the other isn't.

I trust myself to own a handgun. I know I could be safe with it. But I still don't want to be able to own one because it would mean that everyone else would be able to own one too, and I don't trust them. That's kind of how this is going down.

Did you miss it when more than 17 million people voted for Brexit?

Good god man I had just about forgotten about this... ! Please, that was the one upside of the whole Corona thing.