4 ms·

What a strange land. In the UK, I was using public transport and cycling to school by myself from the age of 16. I'm curious, are there large cities in the USA

What a strange land. In the UK, I was using public transport and cycling to school by myself from the age of 16. I'm curious, are there large cities in the USA where this can happen? Are there any significant moves by politicians to wean North Americans off cars? Conversely, are there large cities in other countries that are similar to the US, where this does not happen? I'm going to suspect the Middle East, due to ubiquitous air-conditioning.

Symbiote 9y ago
16 is a bit old? I was 13. Many other children were 11. This was a city in the Midlands. When I moved to London for university, there were 5-6 year olds on buses and trains, accompanied by an older sibling. And they were the rich children attending the private school I lived close to, normal children that age would live close enough to walk to their local school.
cozzyd 9y ago
High school kids usually use normal CTA buses here in Chicago
InitialLastName 9y ago
> I'm curious, are there large cities in the USA where this can happen? Yes, GP appears to be ill-informed about how kids get to school in large parts of the US. In NYC, students take public transit (and are provided passes, if necessary) from approx 13 years old. The same concept applies in most cities I know of on the East Coast (I can't speak for further west, though it appears Chicago has a similar system).
jschwartzi 9y ago
I grew up in the suburbs and was walking to the bus stop by 8, and taking public transit to places by 15. It wasn't especially unsafe, although it would leave you stranded places after 6 in the afternoon.
Clubber 9y ago
It's because our news is completely unregulated and local news always spotlights and aggrandizes crimes and whatnot, so that the population is terrified of itself constantly. Obviously if people took the time to look at the crime statistics, the chances of being a victim of a crime is less than half of what it was when I walked a mile to elementary school every day.
- souprock 9y ago
  For the oddball crimes, that is true. Kids aren't actually getting swiped off the streets. For more normal crimes, the lifetime chance of being a crime victim is serious. For stranger-on-stranger violent crime, there is a total lifetime probability of about 5.3%. You might think "oh that is just 5.3% so no big deal", but the chance of dying in a fire is only 0.09% and we still bother with smoke detectors. Violent crime is a life-altering event. Given the potential for horrific consequences, it is reasonable to be concerned about the possibility. Transportation choices change that risk.
  - adrianN 9y ago
    I've been victim of violent crime. Somebody hit me in the face for no reason at all and ran away. While that sucks pretty bad, dying in a fire, or even just losing all my stuff in the fire, is incomparably worse. Being a victim of violent crime doesn't mean that you land in the hospital. Violent crime has a pretty broad definition.

Symbiote 9y ago

16 is a bit old? I was 13. Many other children were 11. This was a city in the Midlands. When I moved to London for university, there were 5-6 year olds on buses and trains, accompanied by an older sibling. And they were the rich children attending the private school I lived close to, normal children that age would live close enough to walk to their local school.

cozzyd 9y ago

High school kids usually use normal CTA buses here in Chicago

InitialLastName 9y ago

> I'm curious, are there large cities in the USA where this can happen? Yes, GP appears to be ill-informed about how kids get to school in large parts of the US. In NYC, students take public transit (and are provided passes, if necessary) from approx 13 years old. The same concept applies in most cities I know of on the East Coast (I can't speak for further west, though it appears Chicago has a similar system).

jschwartzi 9y ago

I grew up in the suburbs and was walking to the bus stop by 8, and taking public transit to places by 15. It wasn't especially unsafe, although it would leave you stranded places after 6 in the afternoon.

Clubber 9y ago

It's because our news is completely unregulated and local news always spotlights and aggrandizes crimes and whatnot, so that the population is terrified of itself constantly. Obviously if people took the time to look at the crime statistics, the chances of being a victim of a crime is less than half of what it was when I walked a mile to elementary school every day.

souprock 9y ago
For the oddball crimes, that is true. Kids aren't actually getting swiped off the streets. For more normal crimes, the lifetime chance of being a crime victim is serious. For stranger-on-stranger violent crime, there is a total lifetime probability of about 5.3%. You might think "oh that is just 5.3% so no big deal", but the chance of dying in a fire is only 0.09% and we still bother with smoke detectors. Violent crime is a life-altering event. Given the potential for horrific consequences, it is reasonable to be concerned about the possibility. Transportation choices change that risk.
- adrianN 9y ago
  I've been victim of violent crime. Somebody hit me in the face for no reason at all and ran away. While that sucks pretty bad, dying in a fire, or even just losing all my stuff in the fire, is incomparably worse. Being a victim of violent crime doesn't mean that you land in the hospital. Violent crime has a pretty broad definition.