Genius Social Distancing Solutions From All Around The World

With lockdown restrictions slowly being lifted and more stores, restaurants, and parks opening up to the public, people have needed to find ways to enforce social distancing. This problem has sparked a lot of innovation from business owners across the world.

Here are some examples of genius solutions to the issue from all around the world.

It Looks Like A Lazy River, But On Land

Fish Tales, a restaurant located in Ocean City, Maryland, came up with this unique table design inspired by inner tubes. The tables force all the patrons to socially distance from each other while enjoying their meals.

tables shaped like innertubes with patrons in center
Photo Credit: Instagram / @dcmcommunications
Photo Credit: Instagram / @dcmcommunications

The Conversation Might Seem A Little Two-Dimensional

To help customers feel like the restaurant is less empty and simulate a regular dining experience, Frank Angeletta, the owner of Rive Dock Dining in Sydney, Australia, set up cardboard customers to fill the empty chairs while playing taped background noise simulating guest “chatter.”

Cardboard cutouts of human beings sitting at tables inside the Five Dock Dining restaurant
Photo Credit: James D. Morgan / Getty Images
Photo Credit: James D. Morgan / Getty Images

For The Love Of Sport!

AFG Aarhus, a team playing in the Danish Superliga decided to bring their fans back to the stadium using livestreaming and a 134-foot video board placed on the sidelines. The feat involved a total of 556 Zoom meetings!

Players vie for the ball as fans are streamed live on to the screens on the sidelines
Photo Credit: HENNING BAGGER / Ritzau Scanpix / AFP via Getty Images
Photo Credit: HENNING BAGGER / Ritzau Scanpix / AFP via Getty Images

All Aboard The Caffeine Express!

The Cyclista Espresso Bar, located in North Palmerston, New Zealand, has found an ingenious way to avoid making baristas and customers interact. Instead, drinks are delivered using this adorable miniature train.

miniture train carries little cups of espresso
Photo Credit: Instagram / @cyclistacafe
Photo Credit: Instagram / @cyclistacafe

A Physical Representation Of A Personal Bubble

With the weather getting nicer, different measures have been taken to maintain social distancing in public parks. In Brooklyn’s Domino Park, they have created designated circles for groups to isolate in while police monitor the area.

white circles drawn on ground with groups of people sitting in them
Photo Credit: Noam Galai / Getty Images
Photo Credit: Noam Galai / Getty Images

Dividers Have Become The Norm In China

Almost all restaurants, especially ones with bar-style seating, have put up dividers so that patrons can be effectively separated from each other. Many restaurants have opted for clear acrylic ones like this.

dining bar area separated by clear dividers
Photo Credit: Twitter / @blin23
Photo Credit: Twitter / @blin23

Thinking Inside The Box

In order to accommodate diners within a limited space, this vegan restaurant in Amsterdam built mini-greenhouses so that customers could isolate themselves from other tables while still having a magnificent view of the waterfront.

outdoor dining area with tables encased in mini greenhouses
Photo Credit: Instagram / @mediamatic_eten
Photo Credit: Instagram / @mediamatic_eten

This Is So Creepy Looking

The Inn at Little Washington in Washington, Virginia, decided to use mannequins to help the dining area seem a little less lonely. All the mannequins are dressed in retro clothing and styled to look like they’re from the 1940s.

restaurant with mannequins sitting at tables
Photo Credit: Instagram / @innatlittlewash
Photo Credit: Instagram / @innatlittlewash

Take Me Out To The Ball Game!

While sports leagues across America are still currently shut down, Taiwanese players are still engaging in some good ol’ games of baseball. However, since spectators aren’t allowed to come to the stadium, they’ve filled the seats with cardboard cutout fans.

Life-size cutouts depicting a crowd of spectators are seen placed in empty seating during a Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL)
Photo Credit: SAM YEH / AFP via Getty Images
Photo Credit: SAM YEH / AFP via Getty Images

Drive-Thru, But Make It A Zoo

After some of the locals requested it, the San Antonio Zoo offered a drive-thru option for visitors to view a wide variety of animals. Vehicles are only allowed to drive at a 4 mph pace through the zoo.

woman with head sticking out of sunroof while driving around zoo
Photo Credit: Instagram / @sanantoniozoo
Photo Credit: Instagram / @sanantoniozoo

A Whole New Meaning To The Term “Bread Basket”

This isn’t your average basket of bottomless breadsticks at the Olive Garden. Bernal Bakery in San Francisco has been using a basket on a rope to serve customers so that the owners can maintain social distance from them.

bakery owners lower bread to customers one storey below using basket and pulley
Photo Credit: Liz Hafalia / The San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images
Photo Credit: Liz Hafalia / The San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images

Work On Summer Body 2021!

Pure Fitness, a gym located in Hong Kong, has added dividers between treadmills and other cardio exercise machines so that members can still get a workout while social distancing. The USA can expect similar adjustments in fitness centers once they reopen.

treadmills with clear acrylic dividers between them
Photo Credit: Twitter / @benjameslucas
Photo Credit: Twitter / @benjameslucas

A Cute Solution For A Panda-mic

A restaurant in Thailand named Maison Saigon has added some cuddly friends to their dining setup to designate only some seats as available to customers in order to maintain social distance.

stuffed pandas sitting sporadically at restaurant tables
Photo Credit: LILLIAN SUWANRUMPHA / AFP via Getty Images
Photo Credit: LILLIAN SUWANRUMPHA / AFP via Getty Images

So Where Can I Buy One?

A man named Paul Cocksedge designed a circular picnic blanket so that groups of friends who want to hang out together in parks could easily know how to maintain social distance while also clearly looking like a group.

social distance blankets
Photo Credit: Instagram / @paulcocksedge
Photo Credit: Instagram / @paulcocksedge

Maybe Don’t Bring The Kids Here

Paula Starr Melehes, owner of The Open Hearth in Taylors, South Carolina, has just recently reopened her restaurant to the public. To help enforce social distancing guidelines, she has placed clothed blow-up dolls in booths.

blow-up dolls in restaurant booths
Photo Credit: B.A. Van Sise / NurPhoto via Getty Images
Photo Credit: B.A. Van Sise / NurPhoto via Getty Images

Send Noods

Germany recently lifted some of their lockdown restrictions, meaning citizens can go out as long as they maintain social distance. To help customers know how far to stay away from each other, this café made these funky pool noodle hats.

people on outdoor patio all wearing hats with pool noodles attached
Photo Credit: Facebook / Cafe & Konditorie Rothe
Photo Credit: Facebook / Cafe & Konditorie Rothe

Grocery Delivery Has Never Been So Cute

This young woman, Hannah Lucas, in northern Maine, used her dogsled team to take groceries and necessities to elderly and disabled people who might find trips to places like grocery stores daunting.

woman with team on dogsled
Photo Credit: Facebook / Hannah Lucas
Photo Credit: Facebook / Hannah Lucas

Make Public Transit Safe Again!

In Sydney, Australia, metro trains are promoting social distancing by placing stickers on seats to let commuters know where to sit. Now, people can use the metro without worrying about strangers crowding them.

Photo Credit: James D. Morgan / Getty Images
Photo Credit: James D. Morgan / Getty Images

Congratulations To The Happy Couple!

This couple, who couldn’t have their wedding as originally planned, decided to get married on a public street in Brooklyn while an ordained friend conducted the ceremony from their third-floor balcony.

A newlywed couple kisses at the end of their wedding ceremony on an open street in the borough of Brooklyn
Photo Credit: Scott Heins / Getty Images
Photo Credit: Scott Heins / Getty Images

Too Hot To Eat Here!

In Sichuan province in China, temperature checks when entering a location, such as restaurants, have become the norm. Some places also demand that customers register at the entrance of a restaurant.

A customer registers as a staff member checks her body temperature at the entrance of a restaurant in Chengdu, southwest China's Sichuan Province
Photo Credit: Tang Wenhao / Xinhua via Getty Images
Photo Credit: Tang Wenhao / Xinhua via Getty Images