Artist wears coronavirus ‘social distancing machine’ on city streets to show how difficult it is to stay 6ft apart – with hilarious results
- Daniel Rotsztain created the machine out of plastic and some rubber tubing
- He comically bumps into several people and objects along the streets of Toronto
- The artist made the video to encourage the Toronto mayor to close roads to cars
- He hopes introducing the measure will help prevent the spread of coronavirus
- Here’s how to help people impacted by Covid-19
An artist has created a hilarious ‘social distance machine’ showing just how difficult it is to walk around cities and stick to the 6ft distancing rules during the coronavirus pandemic.
Daniel Rotsztain made the device out of plastic and some rubber tubing and ventured out into the streets of Toronto to prove the city should shut its major streets to vehicles.
Mr Rotsztain believes the city’s sidewalks are too narrow and comically proved his point by bumping into people and objects as he walked along.
Daniel Rotsztain wore his ‘social distancing machine’ in the busy street of Toronto, Canada, to prove how difficult it is to stay 6ft apart
While strolling down Kensington Market, wearing the social distance machine, he almost knocks a cyclist off his bike as they nearly plough straight into his 6ft circle.
Other people are forced to walk in the road to avoid him and can be seen doing a double take as they spot his ingenious contraption.
Mr Rotsztain, who describes himself as an urban geographer, artist and writer, adds funny quotes to the clip, such as ‘watch out’ to the cyclist and ‘out of the way buddy’ to the confused pedestrians.
He has no choice but to walk in the road himself as the path starts to narrow and he bumps into metal fencing and lampposts before comically adding expletives in a speech bubble.
The artist was forced to walk in the middle of the road to avoid other people and said it was the ‘only safe place to walk’
The video was made to encourage the Mayor of Toronto, John Tory, to ban cars from busy streets in the city similar to other large cities in Canada
He then moves on to Yonge Street where he again finds the streets are too narrow and has to battle to walk his machine underneath some scaffolding.
He takes a running jump to try and squeeze through but fails miserably and gives up.
With the tubing of his machine getting caught on everything in the street, Mr Rotsztain is hilariously pulled backwards several times and opts to walk in the middle of the road which he says is the ‘only safe place to walk’.
The humorous video finishes with a strong message: ‘Toronto needs more space for pedestrians to stay safe.
He wore the machine on Kensington Market and Yonge Street to prove his point and came across several obstacles along the way
‘The city needs to close streets like Yonge to cars so we can keep out 2m distance.
‘Brampton, Vancouver, Edmonton and Montreal have done it. We can too!’
Mr Rotsztain posted the video on April 13 and asked people who watched it to tell Toronto Mayor John Tory and local councillors to shut the busy roads to cars to promote safe social distancing.
Despite their protestations, the streets remain open to cars and instead the mayor has suggested introducing one-way-only sidewalks.
In the state of Ontaria, where Toronto is, the total number of confirmed and probable cases of coronavirus is 12,150 and 634 people have died.
In total, 36,831 cases of coronavirus have been confirmed in Canada and 1,690 have resulted in deaths.