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Part of the evidence this article uses is that child deaths have dropped... since we started bubble wrapping our kids. Unfortunately, I do believe that if we al

by pkulak 4y ago

Part of the evidence this article uses is that child deaths have dropped... since we started bubble wrapping our kids. Unfortunately, I do believe that if we all kicked our kids out of the house and had them roam the neighborhoods, they'd get slaughtered. I remember playing all over my childhood neighborhood, all day, every day. I walked to elementary school. However, I also just don't remember that many cars around. I remember playing hockey in the street, and when a car showed up, it did so at a crawl, then patiently waited for us to move the goals over. Now I go back to that same neighborhood and cars are driving 40+ mph on the same road I played on. My kids bike to school today, but only on a carefully curated route in the most bike-friendly city in the country, and it still scares me a bit, honestly. If I move to Houston, they are getting loaded into the back of an SUV twice daily.

LorenPechtel 4y ago
My parents simply taught me to be careful of cars. You look before you enter any place a car could go.
- pkulak 4y ago
  Great. Like 80% of public land in cities is roads. https://i.redd.it/zbpxfwp615k81.jpg https://i.redd.it/zbpxfwp615k81.jpg
  - LorenPechtel 4y ago
    You have to cross roads. You do so with care. I hike--and that means at times I end up walking along roads with no sidewalk and where most drivers are not expecting pedestrians. I take the working assumption that drivers will not see me, safety only comes from getting away from the road when there's a car about.
  - notch656a 4y ago
    I very much enjoyed the illustration, and found it to be pretty accurate. If I were to draw another illustration of eliminating vehicles without taking the appropriate long transition to moving to a new supply chain for this urban environment, it would show the valley below the cliff filled in, but with a great deal of the town dead from starvation and the stores and building dilapidated from lack of supplies.
conductr 4y ago
I actually grew up in Houston in the 80s/90s. Playing in the street was exactly like your experience and we roamed on our bikes very far. We also felt pretty safe as kids and had enough street smarts to avoid any issues that we did encounter. But that was mostly due to safety in numbers and why I'd be difficult to go back to those times; your kids would be the only ones outside and the cars might not slow down, they might be target by a pedo, etc. There's also tribal knowledge within a group of kids. When you're old enough to join the group, you learn from others how to safely cross a busy intersection, how to run when you encounter a deranged homeless person, how to help a friend that fell off their bike 5 miles from home without a phone in your pocket, etc. There's no support group to join so your kids would be figuring all that stuff out on their own.

by pkulak 4y ago

LorenPechtel 4y ago

My parents simply taught me to be careful of cars. You look before you enter any place a car could go.

pkulak 4y ago
Great. Like 80% of public land in cities is roads. https://i.redd.it/zbpxfwp615k81.jpg https://i.redd.it/zbpxfwp615k81.jpg
- LorenPechtel 4y ago
  You have to cross roads. You do so with care. I hike--and that means at times I end up walking along roads with no sidewalk and where most drivers are not expecting pedestrians. I take the working assumption that drivers will not see me, safety only comes from getting away from the road when there's a car about.
- notch656a 4y ago
  I very much enjoyed the illustration, and found it to be pretty accurate. If I were to draw another illustration of eliminating vehicles without taking the appropriate long transition to moving to a new supply chain for this urban environment, it would show the valley below the cliff filled in, but with a great deal of the town dead from starvation and the stores and building dilapidated from lack of supplies.

conductr 4y ago

I actually grew up in Houston in the 80s/90s. Playing in the street was exactly like your experience and we roamed on our bikes very far. We also felt pretty safe as kids and had enough street smarts to avoid any issues that we did encounter. But that was mostly due to safety in numbers and why I'd be difficult to go back to those times; your kids would be the only ones outside and the cars might not slow down, they might be target by a pedo, etc. There's also tribal knowledge within a group of kids. When you're old enough to join the group, you learn from others how to safely cross a busy intersection, how to run when you encounter a deranged homeless person, how to help a friend that fell off their bike 5 miles from home without a phone in your pocket, etc. There's no support group to join so your kids would be figuring all that stuff out on their own.