COVID-19 Airflow Patterns? It’s not a matter of distance, it’s a matter of fluid dynamics, especially on the bike.

If the rider, walker or runner in front or to the side of you is generating a cloud of particles containing covid-19, distance can be irrelevant. It’s a matter of where the cloud is going. If you are drafting, best of luck. If you are riding parallel, you effectively have an air wall between you and them, unless there is a strong lateral wind. Then it comes down to the direction and relative velocities of your air wall versus that of the wind.

It’s more complicated than that, given the nature of flow patterns generated by your respective movements, the prevailing wind, passing traffic and stationary objects along your route.

Think of yourself as prey, trying to stay upwind (Yes! Upwind, I know, it sounds weird olfactorily) of your predator, covid-19. It’s as simple as that, along with vortices, eddies, and other complex flow patterns. Meanwhile, the predator is “trying” to stay upwind of you, to smother you in a cloud of virus, unlike predators keen to eat you, who stay downwind to creep up on you.

How to be safe?

Think fluid dynamics, not distance.

Enjoy your brief ride on planet Earth.

Love,

kev