I grew up in the midwest US (northern kentucky) as a "latchkey kid", and the thing that gave me freedom up through my highschool years was having a bike. I did

I grew up in the midwest US (northern kentucky) as a "latchkey kid", and the thing that gave me freedom up through my highschool years was having a bike. I didn't have a stay at home parent that was able to drive me to e.g. the fabric store when I wanted to make a kite one summer, so I biked there. The public swimming pool was about a mile and a half away in the center of town, mildly long walk, super quick bike ride. Same with a lot of other stuff. To this day, 15 years later, I deeply wish it had been much safer and made more convenient for kids and people to bike around. It was so nice to be able to do whatever without having to be driven around, but some of it definitely was not at all safe due to the car culture in the area. I still bike a lot as a result of this and I'm about to purchase a cargo ebike to let me pick up groceries and larger packages (we have some sizeable 300ft climbs here). I can tell a massive difference between my fitness (28 years old) and my similarly aged peers because I've stayed active biking. It's really sad to see. It's insane how much people will complain about removing a single lane of traffic on an excessively large urban "road" to make life much, much safer and healthier for kids, people walking, etc. The first protected bike lane in my city was put in about 8 years ago and it was an insane political battle. You can see where it stops as a result here: https://www.google.com/maps/@39.1322698,-84.5316412,182m/data=!3m1!1e3 https://www.google.com/maps/@39.1322698,-84.5316412,182m/dat... Having a 5 lane road for the amount of traffic this road gets (very minimal) is absolutely insane, and it results in people going 50-60mph on a 35mph road on one of the most active cycle routes around. The section of road with the protected bike lane has no worse of traffic at all, and is much safer. However, due to the political bickering and car obsession about 70% of the bollards have been run over and destroyed by cars, and no one on city council will stick their neck out to get them repaired. It's so frustrating and selfish for people to do this!!