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> In US at least even inside gated communities u can't leave kids (3-6) by themselves because cars. Because cars is the wrong answer. In the 60s and 70s the ki

• scrollaway 4y ago
  What is the right answer, then? For what it’s worth: the right answer is still cars, just indirectly. Yes there are more factors but those factors are caused by how American suburbia is designed and evolved over the last fifty decades, which, surprise … Walking to school is impossible in most of the US. Biking to school on six lane stroads is unthinkable especially for a child. Mobility is freedom and independence, and that independence is removed from American children. And so things evolve in exactly one direction: that of less and less freedom to roam the dangerous streets. Parents of children in the 60s and 70s were raised with their full freedom and had no reason to prevent their kids from roaming the streets. It takes multiple generations for these changes to take effect in the mindsets of people. America will take decades to heal from its car centric mistakes… when it finally starts.
  • tjr225 4y ago
    > Walking to school is impossible in the US. This is not true where I live in Tacoma, WA. In fact, in our neighborhood on the North End, I would guess somewhere around 40% of kids walk to school. There is an elementary school two blocks away from me, and a middle school five or so blocks away. The private schools are a bit further and would require driving or cycling. The neighborhoods I used to live in the residential areas of the Seattle core(Madrona,Leschi,CD) were similar.
    • charcircuit 4y ago
      Google maps says that my primary school is an over 4 hour walk from my house.
      • tjr225 4y ago
        Well I have no idea where you live or how that relates to my comment?
        • charcircuit 4y ago
          Your example of being in a big city does not represent most of the US.
          • tjr225 4y ago
            The comment I replied to stated that it was “impossible” to walk to school in the US. It might benefit your reading abilities to live closer to a school :).
            • charcircuit 4y ago
              The full quote from that post is "Walking to school is impossible in most of the US"
              • tjr225 4y ago
                I believe they must have edited it after my comment as I simply copied and pasted their original text. I stand by your case being really strange. In any case; check out the other reply in this thread. Either way, are you seriously going to sit here and argue with someone that a 4 hour walking distance to a school is somehow normal? Even in the US? I’m sorry dude but I’m done talking to you. I hope you enjoy the unique place that you live in.
                • wizofaus 4y ago
                  It was definitely modified after your post. Wonder if HN shouldn't have some smarts to either disallow editing or at least ensure it's possible to see what edits were made if someone has since replied to/quoted your post.
      • 4y ago
• slifin 4y ago
  Cars have only increased in size, but the main issue when everyone hops in a car is that it creates unsafe environment for everyone not in the car Even if we ignore the threat of being run over, constant noise, pollution, less space for walking etc Cars create a vacuum where if you were mugged in plain day light next to a motorway everyone knows the chances of being helped by a motorist is incredibly low But if there are more pedestrians around you, the chance of getting help from a stranger goes up Cars create dangerous deserts everywhere and that's why we don't let kids out
  • Dracophoenix 4y ago
    > Cars create a vacuum where if you were mugged in plain day light next to a motorway everyone knows the chances of being helped by a motorist is incredibly low. But if there are more pedestrians around you, the chance of getting help from a stranger goes up One is more likely to be mugged in New York than in a Kansas suburb. Long before cars existed, people have been terrorized by highwaymen on country roads with little help or recourse. If anything, cars have likely reduced muggings as fewer people on the streets have created fewer opportunities to be overtaken and robbed.
    • mikhmha 4y ago
      Fewer muggings but more deaths from traffic accidents. What a tradeoff!
  • judge2020 4y ago
    > the chance of getting help from a stranger goes up Or maybe a large clump of people makes everyone more likely to experience the bystander effect.
• juve1996 4y ago
  I don't buy this argument. Cars are extremely heavy these days, and while they have better control, they're also much faster on average. On top of that, there are bigger vehicles going around, like enormous trucks and SUVs with horrendous blind spots and horrible handling.
• TulliusCicero 4y ago
  Car-oriented infrastructure has become more and more common over the decades. Plus, cars today are actually heavier IIRC, and faster.
• ska 4y ago
  > In the 60s and 70s the kids were running around the streets all day and cars then were bigger and harder to control. Car density has increased a lot in many of these places, as has average speed (due to widening efforts, it seems). They are also bigger and also heavier on average. Or at least weight has been increasing since the 80s. It did dip a bit earlier from then, as the large steel frame cars shrunk due to gas prices. Visibility is a mixed bag but is often worse now in the front (cabs are much higher), which is pretty critical for the kids-running-around scenario. Pickups are especially egregious in this way. They are much bigger, much heavier, and have terrible visibility these days. They are a growing segment for reasons unrelated to their nominal function. A friend recently commented after visiting his childhood home (parents still lived there). He spent the Sunday evening on the front porch, an recalled when he was a kid they would probably have been playing street hockey all evening in the neighbourhood, but that would be impossible now.