Driving

Also to anyone who can without car rolling. I read A A online to leave in gear with no hand break on to prevent wheels locking on. Obviously with bricks behind wheels.

Yes you can use your car to go to the supermarket. Check with the supermarket to see if you qualify for the special sessions when the elderly and people with disabilities are allowed to use the store before other people so you won't have to queue.

No queues I was led to believe, or what's the use of social isolation/distancing ?

This virus is on people's clothes and as I've already said, one infected person ( even if they're not aware they have the virus ) can infect 59,000 others, so why are people still milling around in shops ? The virus will NEVER disappear at this rate.

Morrison’s are allowing only a certain number in at a time so outside you queue 2m apart so you can imagine I go around quick and some wont. Not milling me but go when things are low.

Vampirequeen I don’t think I’m bad enough. Arthritis is in elbows, wrists and shoulders so I can’t carry anything, it’s not visible like hips or knees when you can’t walk properly. I do the exercise once a day as stated and see no one.

Guineagirl how old are you? That may qualify you for an early trip on selected days.

I would certainly take my car- you are not in contact with anybody in your car and I agree, you cannot heave the food, if you can find any, back home without your car. Just be careful.

When you get back home, shower, wash hair and put all clothes that you wore into the wash.

We are not using our car, like most people. Should we ensure we use it sometimes to ensure the battery doesn’t go flat! Maybe by running engine without going anywhere?

Short walk to our local butcher today, he is amazed at how many new faces he is seeing. Locals have suddenly realised a supermarket isn’t the only place to buy food!!

Queues around here are standing at a distance. I checked our smaller local Asda yesterday morning - queue was right around the car park, people standing well apart.
I drove straight out again.

Funnily enough, some hours later dh tried the big Asda a bit further away, usually even busier. No queue at all, and shelves pretty well stocked, amazingly enough.

Charleygirl5 I’m nearly sixty so I don’t think I would qualify. Thank you for your kind reply. I only drive my car and I wear gloves to the shops and bin them before I get in car and do hand gel too. I don’t think running the car stood still works I got told the oil needs to circulate but I agree we may need the car in an emergency and it needs keeping charged.

I spoke to the garage as my mot was Monday so cancelled it and asked him can I drive for my weekly shop and he said yes not everyone can carry everything. He was such a positive man and that bit of positivity made me feel so much less frightened and upset. He seemed very aware of restrictions on driving.

Guineagirl, it's true that if you are parked on a slope, you can leave your car in 1st gear rather than rely on the hand-brake, if you have a problem with it. I have a slight slope where my car sits outside my house and I discovered that my handbrake wasn't secure when I narrowly saved the car from rolling down a flight of steps. Until I got the car to the mechanic, I parked in 1st gear.

I have continued driving to our nearest supermarket 2 1/2 miles away on a weekly basis. The car park is always fairly full.
I discovered today that they are limiting the number of people in store at one time. So for the first time since this all happened. I had to queue. No problem.
They have markers inside the store and tapes outside for distancing.
It was all very civilised.

As they are asking people to shop as infrequently as possible, I think it makes sense to take the car and get all your groceries in one go.

We went to our Tesco last evening at about 6pm, as the last stop on our daily walk. They have organised a very efficient queueing system, with yellow lines 2m apart painted across the (fenced off) car park for about 100m, then yellow blobs for the rest of the car park. There are workers manning the queues and making sure people stand in the right places. The queue moved fairly quickly, and there was a lot of good humour. We queued no more than 10 minutes before we were allowed into the shop. They were doing a "five in, five out" system.

Inside, where the self scanners are located, they had a sanitising station set up, so you can sanitise the trolley, scanner etc.

It was quite late in the day, I suppose, so there were no eggs, flour, pasta, rice, cleaning things or loo rolls, but plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables, meat and other things.

I kind of wish they'd stick to the same policy when all this is over. It was very civilised!

EllanVannin do you think the virus could be transmitted if it's on people's clothes when shopping in supermarkets? Thought it was only if breathed in through cough or talking or you touched that person? Guess better avoid al together if you can.

pensionpat I was wondering this too; found this useful RAC page this morning:

www.rac.co.uk/drive/advice/driving-advice/coronavirus-covid-19-answering-drivers-questions/