Is it safe during to simply go for a drive amid the pandemic? Toronto Public Health recommends against it.

But there’s no question people are doing it as a way to break out of the monotony, get out of the house and feel safe within their own bubble.

“We drove to Clarkson, a great view of the Toronto skyline,” said Wally Jaroslawski of Mississauga. “We snapped a picture and we were sitting in the car. In the hour we sat there, there must have been five or 10 cars coming in and out and doing the same as us.”

Toronto Public Health doesn’t recommend going for drives unless it’s for an essential service. It continues to advise everyone to “stay home and only leave the house for essential trips such as shopping for groceries, picking up medicine, going to an urgent medical appointment, attending work as an essential worker, or to exercise,” the agency said in a statement.

Still, during the pandemic, some in the GTA are using their cars in unique ways that go beyond grocery shopping: for drive-by birthday parties, or tributes to teachers and have lined roads for funeral processions. And for just getting out of the house.

For Jaroslawski and his wife Stacey Stevens, going for drives lets them feel normal.

“Getting in the car and driving — we did Caledon, we did Welland — it’s an escape,” said Jaroslawski, a software consultant. “We get dressed up to feel like we’re going out. It feels like you’re human.”

Taking your car out for a Sunday drive — or any day of the week amid the pandemic, really — is a good idea on two fronts, because neither cars nor people are meant to sit idle for long.

“You can crank open the sunroof, open your windows and drive around and get some fresh air and feel like you’re escaping and seeing some things,” said Steve Joordens, a professor of psychology at the University of Toronto Scarborough with expertise in the impact of prolonged isolation. “If they felt like they needed to get out, of the alternatives that are available to them that would be probably one of the least problematic.”

So while even careful pleasure drivers would be ignoring health recommendations — even they take precautions over the risks of, for example, having to fill up at a gas station — they might find the tradeoff for the mental health break to be worth it.

“If someone felt like they were cooped up and felt they needed to get out and see something different or see something green, I can see no reason not to,” Joordens said, adding there are pressures and stresses of staying at home and feeling isolated. People naturally need a certain amount of “interestingness” in their lives, he said.

Too much, and you might want a quiet night at home, but these days a lot of people have already had enough of those. Joordens added: “We need something a little interesting, a little different. If it can be satisfied in a way that’s not going to have any negative effects, then get out there and go somewhere where you maybe get a nice view, or whatever it may be that you’re craving.”

Joordens and his wife, Sue, are avid motorcyclists, they visited family over the weekend in Oshawa and Ajax, stopping on the street while their children and grandchildren chatted from the porch.

He’s seen others do it, too, whether for drive-by birthday parties, or teacher tributes or just tapping into memories of that teenage you, back when you first got your licence.

“There’s something about a car,” Joordens said. “Freedom I guess is the word. You get in it, pick your own course, cover a lot of ground and see your own stuff.”

The drive will be just as good for the car. When a car sits for more than a couple of weeks, batteries can lose their charge, tires can develop flat spots, gas tanks can accumulate moisture. Rodents and pests might find a new home.

Ideally, a car should be driven at least once every two weeks. That will help the tires, clear out the power plant and charge the battery.

If the car is going to sit idle for longer, there are alternatives, said Kaitlynn Furse, director of communications for CAA Central Ontario.

A battery tender can help keep the battery charged while not in use.

A fuel stabilizer will stop moisture from building up.

Adding 10 PSI to the tire pressure will help prevent flat spots, but would need to be reduced when driving resumes.

“Or you can just go for a drive,” Furse said. “Going for a 20-minute drive every week or two is probably sufficient.”

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Recently, Jaroslawski and Stevens took their 2015 Audi to Welland to celebrate the 91st birthday of Jaroslawski’s mother, Lucy, who is in self-isolation in a senior’s facility.

Fortunately, she was on the ground floor and they could see her through the sealed window, Jaroslawski said.

“I’ve never seen my mom so appreciative because she can’t see anybody in there. She hadn’t seen anyone in maybe two weeks.”