When it comes to these often arbitrary edicts as they relate to travel, there is a substantial difference between something that comes down from your own state and something that comes down from a state to which you may want to travel.
As I mentioned in the NH mask thread, I went for a hike in New Hampshire close to two weeks ago now. Traveled by car, didn’t stop anywhere except for gas in Vermont on the way home and kept my distance from others during my solo outdoors hike. Not only is NH more low risk than NY, but my activities while out of state for 8 or 10 hours gave me pretty much a zero mathematical chance of contracting COVID. But according to the current rules in NY, I was supposed to fill out a travel form and get COVID tested on my fourth day back, which wound up costing me $230 since insurance didn’t cover it.
So why did I go through the hassle when I knew I couldn’t have possibly contacted COVID out of state? Simply stated, because my employer has directed those of us who work on site to follow all New York State rules as they relate to COVID. Every day when I show up, I get temperature screened and have to answer a series of questions ... and I’m not going to lie or potentially jeopardize my employment over a hike.
Conversely, when it comes to travel to say Vermont at the moment, I am aware of the quarantine rules in place now that mirror those that were in place back in the spring. So while I factor that into the decision-making process, New York is not telling me to not travel to Vermont (it’s a contiguous state) so I am not at all concerned about potential repercussions at my job. If the spirit moves me to go hiking in Vermont, then I can still isolate by staying in my car while en route to the trailhead and doing nothing more than solo hike an obscure peak.