> 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

> 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.