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When I was a little kid in Eastern Europe we played in the street, footbal, catch, other games. Cars were pretty rare, one every 5 minutes, we would collective
by 21 8y ago
When I was a little kid in Eastern Europe we played in the street, footbal, catch, other games.
Cars were pretty rare, one every 5 minutes, we would collectively pay attention and just yell "car" when one was coming and get on the sidewalks. There was no adult supervision, just us 5-10 year olds.
Of course, if that kind of thing would happen today some parents would probably go to prison.
- monomyth 8y ago>some parents would probably go to prison Not in Eastern Europe
- dustincoates 8y agoI hesitate to think it would in the US, either. For all of the concerns of "in my day this, but today, that," the ultimate goal of child services is the welfare of the child, and no one's going to think that locking a parent up for their children playing in a residential street is what's best for the kid.
- francisofascii 8y agoThe Meitiv family near DC gained some notoriety for allowing their kids to walk to the park by themselves. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meitiv_incidents https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meitiv_incidents
- newnewpdro 8y agoThat this attracted police attention and became news of this magnitude is depressing.
- gowld 8y ago...which is not on the residential street with any responsible adults available.
- cat199 8y agoThis story is even more ridiculous since in the metro DC area (inc Silver Spring), public buses are pretty much the schoolbuses and it is an everyday thing to see groups of kids ~5y and up taking public transit all across town for school...
- bluGill 8y agoThey won't think that, but the problem is they have to enforce laws as written which often don't have exceptions. And those who have to enforce the law have much more to lose by applying judgement than following the rules as written. Zero tolerance policies make it worse because they eliminate all judgement.
- mchristen 8y agoI did this growing up in the suburbs of the US as well, back in the 80's and 90's.
- saagarjha 8y ago> Of course, if that kind of thing would happen today some parents would probably go to prison. This is still common in many US suburbs…
- et-al 8y agoUntil Waze routes commuters off busy thoroughfares to these quiet sidestreets.
- wahern 8y agoThis is why I don't use side streets as shortcuts. Even before I had kids I understood it was a bad idea. I also try to only use services like Google Maps before departing, memorizing key turns. It helps that I'm old enough to have learned how to drive in unfamiliar areas without a computer giving me the turn-by-turn. Perhaps one day Waze and others will be held liable for any accidents or even public nuisances that occur.[1] [1] Better that than government regulators acting as gatekeepers for technological innovation, who typically rely on imaginary, fear-based scenarios rather than actual, manifest harms.
- twblalock 8y ago> Perhaps one day Waze and others will be held liable for any accidents or even public nuisances that occur. Waze is sending drivers onto public roads. Public roads belong to everyone, not just the people whose kids play street hockey on the roads. Don't like it? Then privatize the roads and make the people who live on the roads bear 100% of the maintenance and law enforcement costs. But don't complain about members of the public using a public road.
- Symbiote 8y agoOr campaign to have the road blocked off at one end, so it's useless to through traffic but still fine for people and bicycles. There are plenty of areas in larger European cities which have done this. Its sometimes called filtered permeability. https://www.cycling-embassy.org.uk/dictionary/filtered-permeability https://www.cycling-embassy.org.uk/dictionary/filtered-perme...
- dominotw 8y agoStill the case in most of the 'developing' world.
- gwbas1c 8y agoThis was a scene in Wayne's World, a major 1990s American movie set in American Suburbia.
- limaoscarjuliet 8y agoSame experiences here. The biggest fun was to be on our own, unsupervised, learning by ourselves.
- Axsuul 8y agoThis still happens in gated communities within the US
- prawn 8y agoStreet parking IMO is a bigger danger than cars in quiet streets. They block sightlines for drivers to kids running out onto the street. I live in the middle of a quiet, single-block street. Without street parking, my kids could play out front of the house and any approaching cars would get loads of warning if they strayed onto the road. With more than 2-3 cars parked in the area, the situation changes dramatically.
- analog31 8y agoIndeed, my street when I was growing up was like the parent's: Kids running around, on our bikes, or playing street hockey. My parents still live in the same house, and so I get to see my old streets today. They are completely parked up on both sides, not just with cars, but the typical car is a full sized pickup truck, SUV, etc.
- prawn 8y agoExact same situation for me. We used to ride and skateboard on my parents' street, kick footballs, etc. 30 years later, there are cars on both sides to the point that it's hard to drive up the street let alone get a park out front. I wonder how much of it comes down to people having more cars and parking them out front to avoid having to shuffle them in a narrow driveway. The risk of a break in is low enough that people have no qualms leaving vehicles on the street overnight. Without parking restrictions or costs, it will continue like this until it's cheaper to rent/call cars on demand.