Q: Does the governor’s “stay at home” order allow driving places in order to hike, ski, walk, or bike? My understanding is that this is forbidden–driving is allowed for essential activities, while walking and biking are encouraged, but only close to home. Lots of people are convinced of the opposite–that the governor’s order allows driving without limits to allow recreational pursuits. Any degree of clarity would be welcome. And if you’ve got a direct line to the governor, maybe suggest that he or his staff clarify loudly and publicly.
A: You’re making this difficult for me. My go-to resource for traffic questions is the Revised Code of Washington, but that isn’t going help me here. And I don’t have a direct line to the governor, although that would be pretty cool. It’s probably for the best though. I’d probably bug him with all my questions and get it taken away from me anyway. And this question is certainly out of my area of expertise, or even general knowledge, but I’m curious too so let’s see if we can figure this out.
First of all, let’s concede that things are changing so fast that this answer could be obsolete by the next press conference. While there are plenty of news articles describing the governor’s “Stay Home – Stay Healthy” order, I think we can only rely on the original source to know if recreational driving is allowed. The first time I tried to read the order my brain glazed over from the nine paragraphs that all begin with “Whereas.” Why does every important document from a government office seem to lead with half a score of “Whereas” paragraphs? But that’s a question for another day.
I gave it another attempt and found the section relevant to this question. To quote the governor, “I hereby order that all people in Washington State are immediately prohibited from leaving their home or place of residence except to conduct or participate in (1) essential activities, and/or (2) employment in providing essential business services.” We’re concerned with point one and the definition of essential activities. The order lists four essential activities, and the fourth one is about recreation. Here’s what’s allowed word-for-word from the order: “Engaging in outdoor exercise activities, such as walking, hiking, running or biking, but only if appropriate social distancing practices are used.”
Based on the general theme of the order (stay home), I’m going to presume that it’s his desire that people only drive when necessary, but the order doesn’t make it clear that driving is prohibited to reach your outdoor recreation activity destination. I’m going to go with, “You probably shouldn’t, but it’s probably not illegal.” I know that’s not the answer you were looking for. In fact, it’s barely even an answer. That’s also all we have to work from in the order. But while we’re on the topic of limitations on driving, I’d like to approach it from another perspective.
Back in 2008 we had an economic crisis that left a lot of people unemployed and without the resources to participate in many activities that they used to do. That resulted in less people driving, both for work and for pleasure. And you can probably guess where I’m going with this. In the years following the economic crisis traffic fatalities were the lowest they’d been in the last 44 years (and maybe longer. I could only find records going back to 1975.)
Driving has a cost, and during a time when we’re being called upon to make some major changes to our lifestyle for the protection of our community, it might also be a time to evaluate our driving patterns. Transportation is an important part of our social well-being and our economy, but we’ve probably all discovered that we can do life with a little less of it. We can consolidate trips, choose a closer grocery store or restaurant, walk or bike somewhere local instead of driving across the county to your favorite spot (at least sometimes.)
In the traffic safety world we talk about the three E’s: education, enforcement and engineering. In the past I’ve suggested that we’re missing a couple E’s: exposure and expertise. Less time on the road means fewer opportunities to crash, and increasing your driving skill equips you to avoid the hazards you do encounter.
It comes down to making decisions about both how much we drive and how we drive. This order will eventually lift, and many of us will resume much of our previous driving. But there are two ways we can control our risk: drive less and drive better.