May 19, 2020

Is this the biggest challenge TransLink faces?

We’re well-trained: Keep six feet of separation – or two meters, the length of a bicycle, two extended arms, three steps back.   The length may not be that specific, but the point is: keep your distance.

But unfortunately, mass transit doesn’t work well with that instruction. Buses and trains never contemplated such a parameter.  Like restaurants at half capacity, some things just aren’t viable. Without occasional crowding, mass transit doesn’t have the mass.

Daily Hive

Unfortunately, fear and failure of transit will likely lead to another form of crowding – traffic congestion.   How soon and how much is still not clear – too many variables. It’s even possible that car use may not come back to previous levels.

But if it becomes clear that we have no choice – get back on transit in serious numbers or the region can’t function – then the challenge isn’t so much a technical one; it’s to  overcome this message:

 

Yet another ask of Dr Henry: under what conditions can we ignore that sign?

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  1. I have said before, the two mtre distancing rule is too simplisitic, and all the piblic health authorities know this.

    Under some circumstances, more distance would be better – when facing someone, whe heavy breathing is involved, etc.

    Under other circumstaces, less distance might be ok.

    Ither factors: indoors vs outdoors, timeframe.

    Public health officials over-simplify these things because of “public confusion”. It is a shame.

  2. THE biggest unasked question is: how flat does wave 1 have to be to not have a wave 2 or 3? In other words: a flatter curve is a far longer curve, but what is flat enough?

    Who shifted the initial goal posts from “don’t overwhelm hospital systems” to something utterly undefined. And why? It is totally unclear right now what the goal is. 0 death? A declining new case curve but with more testing? Everyone gets tested and case load under X for 100,000 people? No more death in old folks homes?

    As such the 2m rule appears made up, out of thin air, to prolong an already far too flat curve, at far too high an economic, social, emotional and mental health cost !

    The fear of death is way overblown as the risk of death is way overblown, esp among the young, and as such government actions are way overblown. https://nationalpost.com/opinion/conrad-black-fear-of-covid-19-is-overblown-its-time-to-get-the-economy-moving-again

  3. if evidence be from Hong Kong, Taipei, Singapore, Seoul…is a guide

    Face masks are just good enough…and Translink should get rid of all these physical distancing marks, which outcome could prove worse than the problem they try to address.

    they just contribute to increase air pollution, which seems correlated to covid virulence, and a bus carrying too few people, let say 10, just pollute more than 10 cars…

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