Riding It Out

Shit’s getting real:

16 leading transport and public health academics join the bicycle industry in calling for the UK government not to ban cycling during the Coronavirus lockdown. https://t.co/g1gt4Wy43I pic.twitter.com/Oe4THeSgwB

— Carlton Reid (@carltonreid) March 17, 2020

Across the Atlantic, people are now begging for the right to walk and ride bicycles alone outside:

“Walking and cycling, particularly in greenspace, is good for mental as well as physical health,” write the experts, which include the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine’s Professor Sir Andy Haines.

Here in New York we may be next:

"We have never been here before," @NYCMayor says of a possible shelter in place order. So far, the military is not involved. "We would work with the state and the NYPD and the FDNY. We would have to create a monitoring system that would make sense,"

— Spectrum News NY1 (@NY1) March 17, 2020

No ride for me today owing to rain and sundry responsibilities, but I intend to keep going even if they sic the NYPD and FDNY on me.

Or people start yelling at me from their windows:

Tensions are mounting as our social fabric frays. In Brooklyn, these folks in apartment windows got in a shouting match with those down on the street. “Flatten the curve, go home,” one chants. #coronavirus pic.twitter.com/XjYQDewnaT

— Nick Brown (@NickPBrown) March 15, 2020

Do I take potentially lethal viruses seriously? Yep. Do I think some people are losing their damn minds? Also yep. If you ride a bicycle you’re used to people accusing you of engaging in excessively risky behavior for doing something perfectly reasonable, but now we’ve reached the point where we’re shaming others for stepping outside for a breath of fresh air.

I’m officially freaked out, and it ain’t because of the virus.