CC Jul-Aug 2020

COMMENT
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Comment
Keeping your distance
by David Chadwick
Afew days ago I came across an
interesting animated graph on the
Internet, which demonstrated the
relationship between the adoption of
Covid-19 measures in America against
the spread of the virus over a period of a
couple of months. The preventative
measure was the enforcement of mask
wearing in each of the States and its
affect on the spread of the virus. What
was remarkable was that although a
couple of States had high initial rates of
infection, as soon as the wearing of
protective face masks became a policy
within that State, the rates of infection
declined rapidly, and States which had
no face mask wearing policy exhibited
massively expanding rates of infection.
I am well aware of the pros and cons of
wearing face masks to protect yourself
and others from the virus. Some people
doubt their efficacy or that most wearers
are using them wrongly, and that face
masks designed for workers in a dusty
environment with valves on the side are
actually more harmful than not wearing a
mask - a whole range of reasons, right
up to the widely held view in America
that they are an assault on our freedoms.
I use a face mask when I enter a closed
environment where there are other
members of the public. I am generally
one of the few who do in our local
supermarkets, but what is notable is that
even those without masks, on noticing
you dolled up with masks and gloves,
give you the space you need to do your
shopping safely.
This is the crux of the matter. With the
major spread of the virus being
confirmed as a consequence of aerial
transmission, the need to maintain a
greater distance between yourself and
others is important. Forget about the 1 or
2 metre rule as these are arbitrarily
imposed distances meant merely to
remind and encourage people to safely
distance themselves from other people
in populous environments.
With the virus spreading faster in other
parts of the world, and local spikes
causing lockdowns in this country, it is
obvious that the pandemic is far from
over, and that we need to maintain the
discipline that mitigates its spread – and
as we appear to be unable, for the most
part, to stay away from close contact
with other commuters, shoppers,
partygoers and absolute strangers, we
need a bit of technology to help us.
We have two articles in this issue which
provide valuable information to architects
and local authority planning committees
about measures to encourage proper
social distancing. The first, from ArcGIS,
offers a nationwide set of town plans
showing pavement widths on all roads,
enabling the authorities to provide safety
measures in congested areas, while the
second looks at MassMotion from
Oasys, which simulates pedestrian
movement within public environments.
This has now been extended to include
variable levels of social distancing, and
to show where steps need to be taken to
enforce its adoption.
Is this the way we will live from now on -
a split between people who couldn’t care
less about the measures we need to take
to avoid contracting Covid-19 or any
future virus, and those who are fearful of
close personal contact in any shape or
form? The most heartening aspect of it
all I think is that the global scientific
community has been able to analyse,
develop, and begin testing a range of
possible vaccines and other solutions in
an incredibly short timescale.
4 July/August 2020