Keeping your distance isn't so easy after all
Most of us live in cities or towns. Taking exercise outside our homes involves walking or running on pavements (Coronavirus outdoor etiquette: no spitting, and keep your distance, 23 March). Very few pavements are 2 metres wide; most are much less. As soon as somebody comes towards you, it is impossible to stay 2 metres apart. But pavements usually come in pairs. Why don’t we make them, where possible, one way?
Since we drive on the left, why don’t we walk or run on the right, so that we face the traffic, but no longer have to face at close quarters those walking in the opposite direction? This idea can be refined. People wishing to overtake those in front of them should make their presence known and, as they approach, maximise the distance between them and those moving more slowly. The latter should have right of way, as on the sea.
The current situation we have is nonsensical: you are allowed to go outside for exercise even if this immediately compromises your efforts to keep your distance from others.
Dr Mike Gill
Former regional director of public health, London
• As I take my permitted exercise around our suburban estate, I am taken back 85 years to when the world was blessedly quiet, we could play football in the road without danger or much interruption and children didn’t have to be accompanied by parents.
That’s as it is now, but things will revert after the emergency and our little holiday will be over.
Ted Clark
Leamington Spa
• Picking up my prescription at a Tesco pharmacy last week, I noticed that it was only dispensing and had the shelves covered. That is, except for boxes of Viagra Connect. That won’t aid social distancing, will it?
Bob Moorman
Grays, Essex
