Background:
I try to get out of our condo unit nearly every day. Some days I just leave the unit and climb the stairs for exercise within our building. Other times, if I'm not shopping (and only rarely am I shopping), I go for walks.
Inside
In this building, for several weeks we had a policy of only one person on the elevator (or two if both are from the same unit). We also had a policy of absolutely no visitors at all, and we have hand sanitizers next to the elevator doors on every floor. We also have hand sanitizers strategically placed throughout the main lobby and in the parking garage. Whenever we encounter someone else in a hallway or near the mailboxes, we all wait patiently. Most of us try to leave at least ten feet between us and someone else.
The elevator rules have now been slightly relaxed so that we can have up to three people on an elevator so long as we don't face each other, which seems pretty anti-social to me. I'm okay with having one other person on the elevator, standing diagonally across from me, so long as they aren't looking directly at me when they talk. But it's a small building and that has happened only once.
Outside is a different story.
Near us there are numerous wonderful paved walkways through parks and alongside branches of the Thames River. Joggers, runners, bikers, skate-boarders, and walkers all make considerable use of these walkways, especially on nice sunny days.
I wear a multi-filtered homemade mask when I go out of the building for these walks. Most of us using the the walkways try to practice distancing. Whenever I see someone coming toward me, I move off onto the grass; often they do, too, but not always. And runners or bikers (or fast walkers) sometimes pass me and don't leave as much distance between us as I would prefer. For the most part, it works out okay, aside from bridges and tunnels. For those, not everyone waits. If I start on a bridge or through a tunnel and someone at the other end doesn't wait, I turn around and go back and wait for them to pass.
Actually, I've found it easier to distance from others when I walk through residential areas. It's relatively easy to go up on a lawn when I meet someone and just about as easy to cross the street. Increasingly my walks are like these.
And now the question(s):
If I can do these things, why can't people golf (it's pretty easy to distance on a golf course)? How is that different from walking (properly distanced) with a few friends in a park?
If I can do these things, what about going to a beach so long as I distance just as I would in a grassy park?
Given that I'm pretty careful and pretty concerned about not wanting to bring Covid19 home, you can bet I'd stay away from others on the beach, and I'd not even get out of my car at the beach if it looked crowded.
Is it because policy makers don't trust others to distance? Recent photos from the beaches in Florida looked to me as if most people were trying to distance, though not all were, for sure. And keep in mind that UV is a pretty effective sanitizer.
Is it because if someone goes to the beach, is asymptomatic but infected, and doesn't distance, they could consequently transmit Covid19 to others? As a potential victim, I'd try to distance ... a lot ... but others might not.
Still, that's gotta be safer than walking on sidewalks downtown riding on a bus or subway where distancing can be much more difficult.
Addendum: Here's the photo from the Washington Post. [much better quality if you click on the link]. Most of the people in it are distancing, but if I went to the beach and saw this, right now I wouldn't stay.
