Reopening trails and allowing solo sports - eg cycling, swimming, surfing etc
From "Suggestions to stimulate economic recovery for Bermudians once Shelter in Place ends"
Go to the project
First of all, I wanted to express my gratitude for everything that Bermuda gov is doing to keep us safe. I am very impressed with the level of leadership, transparency and ability to make tough decisions and quickly.
Having said that, I feel the restrictions around the exercise are unnecessarily severe and limit people in their ability to keep fit - physically and mentally. I strongly believe that pushing people to walk and run onto the roads is subjecting them to either putting their exercise on hold or running along the (very) fast moving traffic. Since the beginning of the lockdown last week due to less cars on the roads, the trucks and vans that are there - drive very fast. I feel very unsafe when I run (daily). I really believe it would be such a welcome change if people could walk and run on the trails again. Even before the lockdown everyone was keeping their distance, therefore I am confident this won't pose any health risks if people continue being respectful of social distancing rules. I also believe it would not pose any health risk if people were allowed to cycle on the roads for exercise as well as swim, paddle board, kayak, surf (use unmotorised watercraft of any kind) as long as they practice these alone and keep themselves safe (close to shore). We will need our mental and physical capacity once Bermuda is in the position to slowly open itself again and start economic recovery. In that context, I believe that if an activity can be practiced solo and naturally allow for physical distance - it should be allowed. No risk - only upside. We need to stay sane and healthy through this. And not stress about being hit by a truck for no good reason (as an example). Please trust we can and will behave as responsible adults should these amendments be introduced. Because we are. Thank you so much for giving these thoughts the time of day.
Update: I came across this research which shows that COVID19 is spreading indoors in majority of cases. So not only will exercise outdoors keep us sane and mentally and physically fit, it is a safer place to be - as long as we keep our distance from others.
https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.04.04.20053058v1
