Whatever happened to Stay Home. Protect the NHS. Save Lives?
More cars are on the road locally and you only need to watch and it becomes obvious. In the last few days, it's become very noticeable.
It's perhaps more difficult to recognise the quantum on main roads but there's no doubt that minor and distributor roads in town are much more busy—which means that main roads must be, too. A couple of households locally simply can no longer keep their cars off the road. They're each out a couple of times a day, sometimes more.
It's very worrying as, so far, we've all been very law-abiding. Such lunacy when we've gotten so far. Is the spike in car use an indication that we feel immortal? We'd better think again. On the news today and we expect the covid-19 peak locally to be mid- to late-May, according to Betsi Cadwaladr UHB. That's two to four weeks away. Now is not the time to do stupid things that put us all at risk. And, even more on the news and it looks likely the UK will see the third highest fatality rate, after USA and China. We now have over 26,000 deaths and one third of those admitted to hospital simply don't come out other than in a box.
Google's latest figures for Denbighshire don't account for this spike in usage but, then again, these data lag. The spike nationally has only just occurred. Trips for grocery and pharmacy have risen since the April 5th data, although journeys for work are lower. And visits to open spaces have gone up, too, quite significantly.
In the space of time it has taken me to write this—16 minutes—five vehicles have driven buy and this on an estate road. But it's been the same nearly all evening and much of the afternoon. This time last week and you could've slept on the road and not been disturbed let alone run over.
More cars are on the road locally and you only need to watch and it becomes obvious. In the last few days, it's become very noticeable.
In terms of public transport, this graph is largely irrelevant to us. Not, though, the national spike in car usage today... mirrored locally
It's perhaps more difficult to recognise the quantum on main roads but there's no doubt that minor and distributor roads in town are much more busy—which means that main roads must be, too. A couple of households locally simply can no longer keep their cars off the road. They're each out a couple of times a day, sometimes more.
It's very worrying as, so far, we've all been very law-abiding. Such lunacy when we've gotten so far. Is the spike in car use an indication that we feel immortal? We'd better think again. On the news today and we expect the covid-19 peak locally to be mid- to late-May, according to Betsi Cadwaladr UHB. That's two to four weeks away. Now is not the time to do stupid things that put us all at risk. And, even more on the news and it looks likely the UK will see the third highest fatality rate, after USA and China. We now have over 26,000 deaths and one third of those admitted to hospital simply don't come out other than in a box.
Google's latest figures for Denbighshire don't account for this spike in usage but, then again, these data lag. The spike nationally has only just occurred. Trips for grocery and pharmacy have risen since the April 5th data, although journeys for work are lower. And visits to open spaces have gone up, too, quite significantly.
| DENBIGHSHIRE | April 5th | April 11th | April 17th |
Retail & recreation
| –79% | –75% | –68% |
Grocery & pharmacy
| –42% | –25% | –24% |
Parks/Open spaces
| –44% | –52% | –33% |
'Transit' stations
| –59% | –58% | –54% |
Workspace
| –47% | –54% | –63% |
In the space of time it has taken me to write this—16 minutes—five vehicles have driven buy and this on an estate road. But it's been the same nearly all evening and much of the afternoon. This time last week and you could've slept on the road and not been disturbed let alone run over.