Phil

I understand your frustration with the current situation. I don't like the restrictions we are forced to live with because of the pandemic either.

But...we have to live with them for now. I urge you to read or re-read Ed Cahill's explanation of the board's position on cancelling group rides:


https://baltobikeclub.org/index.php/for … sume#p8538


The key part of Ed Cahill's post is:

"Restarting rides and events will be difficult. Members need to recognize some basic facts. We are a social club. We are not an essential business. Nobody's livelihood is threatened by us not reactivating normal activities. Whatever risks we are willing to accept as individuals, the club has to adhere to a much stricter risk-benefit ratio. The club cannot put members and people members will come in contact with at undue risk to their health of even life. While restarting club rides may seem essential to our own mental and physical health, in the scheme of things, we are pretty low down on the list. That means the club has to make the risks of restarting quite low also.

As of now, the Baltimore/Washington area is considered one of the "hot spots" in the country for Covid 19 infections and deaths. Despite some the earliest and strictest restrictions in the country, our state infection rate is only "flattening". Nobody, but nobody really knows how severe or where the Covid 19 resurgence will be as we go into minimal relaxation of the Stay at Home restrictions. We won't really have any idea for at least another four weeks. I am not sure that even by June 11, the date of the next Board meeting, we will have enough information to make a good decision.The balkanization of the relaxation in Maryland and PA makes planning even more difficult. "


How do things stand in Baltimore at this point in time? Baltimore has very tentatively moved to Phase 1 reopening. They are well aware that they might have to go back to a full stay-at-home policy. See the presentation of their policy on Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/MIMABaltimore/

and...Baltimore city yesterday suspended all recycling collections for three weeks following a COVID-19 outbreak at Bowleys Lane Sanitation Yard. 

It is too soon!  We are not going to miss payments on our car (or bike) or our rent because we can't do group rides.

I think the BBCs board's position on the group ride issues commendable and I hope they continue to prioritize safety over fun.

ed

Ed, I realize we're a social club and not an essential business, but that is really irrelevant to the question of safety.  I think I pretty thoroughly made the case in my post (I also had links to my sources, but the links don't stand out very well) that the risk of contracting or spreading COVID-19 from group bike riding is EXTREMELY small, much smaller, in fact, than the risk of getting seriously injured or even killed in a bicycle accident.  I know this is anecdotal, but in more than 30 years of riding with the BBC, I cannot recall a single case of a rider on a group ride contracting an infectious disease from another rider.  But I recall plenty of cases where cyclists have been seriously injured (and in a few cases killed) on group rides.  Should we then discontinue all group rides because of the risk of injury or death?  After all, we're "non-essential".  Shouldn't the same logic also apply when coronavirus isn't a threat?

The purpose of the BBC and all recreational cycling clubs is to facilitate people getting together to go on bike rides.  If all we wanted to do was ride alone, we wouldn't need a club.  We're adults.  We are capable of assessing the risks and making intelligent decisions on whether or not to ride, alone or in a group.  It is not the place of a bike club to put up barriers to riding.

That said, there are some things that might marginally reduce the already insignificant risk even more.

1.  Have ride leaders post cue sheets to the cue library rather than handing out paper copies at the ride start.  Those going on the ride could then download them and print their own copies, thus eliminating one interpersonal contact.

2.  Have riders sign in for the ride on line.  This eliminates another interpersonal contact.  There might be a legal issue here, since one of the purposes of signing in is to absolve the club of liability, but it could be worked out.  I digitally sign my tax returns every year.

3.  Don't draft the rider in front of you.  You shouldn't be doing this anyway on a recreational ride.  You're not in race, and drafting definitely increases the risk of injury irrespective of coronavirus.

4.  No "snot rockets" (in case the rider drafting you didn't read point #3).  Carry a handkerchief tucked in your waist band or in your rear jersey pocket to expel that nasty stuff into.

5.  Finally, dispense, for now, with the high-fives and hugs at the ride start.

Notice that I didn't say anything about masks.  That is because masks are unnecessary outdoors, even at the ride start.  Just keep a prudent distance from others.

Phil

The issue is what we have to do as citizens who are part of the community to slow or stop the spread of COVID-19.  I see all of your arguments about the risk to an individual rider as beside the point.

We have a pandemic going on. As a community we have to keep as much social distance as we can to slow its spread.

Any kind of group activity increases the chance of community spread. 

That's it.

ed

How is that beside the point?  If you contract the virus, you get it from another individual.  The only relevance of the group is that the likelihood of at least one infected individual in the group increases with the size of the group -- and that assumes you have contact with every member of the group.  If you spread the virus, you spread it to another individual.  In that case, the only relevance of the group is that there are more possible contacts, emphasis on "possible".  That, by the way, is how "herd immunity" works -- as more people become infected and recover, the pool of potential infecting agents is reduced, reducing the likelihood of any one encounter resulting in infection.  In my previous reply I enumerated some commonsense social distancing guidelines that could be applied to group rides and marginally reduce the already extremely low probability of contracting or spreading the infection.

The only way a group bike ride could be a threat to the community's health is if an infected rider shows up for a ride and transmits the disease to another rider who then goes out to transmit it to others.  As I've already shown, the probability of something like that happening is so small as to be negligible.

I think a coronavirus particle is on the order of 100nm.   Much smaller than other viruses.   It is slow to fall.

I'm over 65, so I have no desire to gamble my life with whether the posted statements are valid.   The governor says groups must be 10 or less.  I'll help keep it small by not coming to a group ride. 

I dread seeing more bodies from the hospital moved into the refrigerated trucks.   This extremely contagious disease can be fatal and I don't want to risk infection.      I'll keep enjoying nature in solitude on my rides.   

Thank you BBC board for giving your attention to the needs of the club members.   

Here is a guide to planning your post-lockdown life. Places and activities ranked on a scale of 1-10 for risk of contracting COVID-19, with 10 being the riskiest and 1 the least dangerous:

https://nypost.com/2020/06/13/experts-r … ronavirus/

Bicycling is ranked 2.