While we sit here stuck in a hotel room in Brazil it was shocking to read how silly some other cycle tourists can be.  The lockdown in South Africa kicked in yesterday but one thoughtless cycle tourist from Johannesburg decided it was a good time to tackle the 1500 Km long N1 highway to Cape Town while it was free of traffic.

Wheels of justice: Johannesburg cyclist who defied lockdown arrested

How long will the offender be locked down for? A lengthy sentence I hope.

Here in Victoria Australia we have not introduced such strict regulations (overdue IMHO) and some idiots are still organising group rides.

Mike

I suspect he will just get a SYP sentence, that is get a serious warning, as it was in the first few hours of the lockdown.  Also arrested were various groups of revelers who partied on after the midnight cutoff.  All in all there were only about 55 people arrested for disregarding the curfew on the first day.

One of the best bits of advice that I have heard is to assume that, until proven otherwise, oneself is a transmitter.  It could make being stuck at home easier to accept.

This is an interesting time we are living through.  People can be viewed through the lens of their actions. So, are you me first, or after you?  Do the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few?  Which camp does one fall into, helping others or selfpreservation?  Hard choices sometimes, really easy ones in other cases.

Warning - minimal cycling content!

There was an op-ed in this Sunday's Washington Post by a young man, I think he was 18 years old. His headline was "This virus will kill you now, global warming will kill us later." His message was basically "Hey, boomers - we are willing to suffer now to help you but we are going to expect  you to pay it forward when we can get back to thinking about sacrificing to mitigate climate change."

Of course, the first responses were  quick to point to pictures of millenials crowding on the beach, etc - but the reality is that my daughter's generation is making a lot of sacrifices right now essentially to disproportional save lives in the older generation.

Some of the forced changes will stick. There is a local company here in Maryland US that sewed draping/bunting and banners for trade show booths. The trade show industry shut down for obvious reasons and sales went to zero. They switched to making surgical masks and gowns and rehired all their people to keep up with demand. Some percentage of the trade show business won't come back, some percentage of that revenue will hopefully stay with increased spending here on increased local capacity for health care supplies.

I was 16 when the first OPEC oil embargo hit in 1979 and 21 when the Iranian revolution caused another gasoline shortage in the US - and odd/even license plate rationing, long lines, limits on how many gallons at once, etc. Many of the bike trails and lanes I ride on today in this area came out of those impacts to cars and driving. A higher (yes, not high enough but higher!) percentage of the road budget went to alternatives to driving and standards for bike paths were improved, etc. 

I was talking to my daughter and used the comparison that in 1988 (two years before she was born) forest fires ravaged Yellowstone National Park, largely because years of bad policies had reached a tipping point that enabled an inferno. In 2017, my wife and I hiked and biked Yellowstone and Glacier National Parks and it is stunning how beautiful the once-ravaged area is now - and many, not all, of those bad policies have been changed. Wasn't fun for those wanting to enjoy the park in 1989 but in the long run positive change.