{"id":3564,"date":"2020-05-07T14:59:40","date_gmt":"2020-05-07T12:59:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/?post_type=article&p=3564"},"modified":"2020-05-07T14:59:40","modified_gmt":"2020-05-07T12:59:40","slug":"ghaliex-ma-ninkoraggux-ic-ciklizmu-matul-dan-iz-zmien-ta-krizi","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/article\/ghaliex-ma-ninkoraggux-ic-ciklizmu-matul-dan-iz-zmien-ta-krizi\/","title":{"rendered":"Why not encourage cycling during these times of crisis?"},"content":{"rendered":"

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This is a pertinent question<\/span>\u00a0for those who are still travelling to work, to go shopping for food or to visit vulnerable persons. How can one travel from one place to another without being infected by or spreading the Coronavirus?\u00a0 Cycling could be an answer.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Public transport has become\u00a0<\/span>risky. The health authorities advise staying about six feet away from other persons to minimise the spread of infection. This is the reaction to the crisis we are currently living, a crisis that can go on for weeks if not months before a vaccine is found.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Many workers are working from home and to\u00a0<\/span>vary the routine (and shake off the blues) make up errands to go out for a little while. The bicycle takes you out in the street, enables you to breathe some fresh air\u00a0<\/span>now that it is Spring\u00a0<\/span>and keeps you away from people.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Cycling is an excellent\u00a0<\/span>way to abide by the social distancing<\/span>\u00a0guidelines\u00a0<\/span>\u2013\u00a0as long as\u00a0you are cycling alone. The World Health Organisation encourages exercise and recommends that anyone who goes out for a walk or a bike ride should always keep a physical distance from others and wash their hands with soap before they leave, when they arrive at their destination and as soon as they get back home.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Instead of\u00a0<\/span>making it difficult to use the bicycle, the Government should use this Coronavirus crisis to facilitate journeying by bicycle and encourage people to avoid using public transport (that can lead to passengers getting sick if they do not keep their distance). With the\u00a0ever increasing\u00a0number of people who are staying hom<\/span>e, the traffic on many roads has lessened. In fact, one of the many impacts of the pandemic is a marked decrease in the level of emissions as cars are being left in garages or parked close to home.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

So why don\u2019t we make cycling less difficult? Why don\u2019t we prohibit traffic going through some roads and, instead, increase the bike lanes? With every turn of the wheel, people will be maintaining their distance and keeping fit through the exercise that they are doing. Not to mention that they will be keeping away from infection caused by the Coronavirus.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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  This is a pertinent question\u00a0for those who are still travelling to work, to go shopping for food or to visit vulnerable persons. How can one travel from one place […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":3559,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"spay_email":""},"issuem_issue":[163],"issuem_issue_categories":[9],"issuem_issue_tags":[],"translation":{"provider":"WPGlobus","version":"2.8.8","language":"en","enabled_languages":["mt","en"],"languages":{"mt":{"title":true,"content":true,"excerpt":false},"en":{"title":true,"content":true,"excerpt":false}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article\/3564"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/article"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3564"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article\/3564\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3566,"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article\/3564\/revisions\/3566"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3559"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3564"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"issuem_issue","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issuem_issue?post=3564"},{"taxonomy":"issuem_issue_categories","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issuem_issue_categories?post=3564"},{"taxonomy":"issuem_issue_tags","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issuem_issue_tags?post=3564"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}