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> US child pedestrian deaths 1975: 1632. US child pedestrian deaths 2019: 138. Not to mention that the US population in the 1970 census was 203M. In the 2020 c

by pc86 3y ago

> US child pedestrian deaths 1975: 1632. US child pedestrian deaths 2019: 138. Not to mention that the US population in the 1970 census was 203M. In the 2020 census, 331M - a 63% increase from 1970! So a 91% reduction in deaths while population increased 63%. I'm not a statistician but that seems pretty great. I'm sure the children-per-capita rate changed during that time as well so maybe someone who knows that figure could do some more precise math. But overall the "oh no my kids couldn't possible cross the street without being immediately killed!" hyperbole seems just that.

jacobolus 3y ago
The number of children hasn't changed that much, only a few percent since 1970. The proportion of the population under 20 years old has changed from ~~~about~19%~to~about~12%~~~ (edit:) about 38% to about 24%.
- Clubber 3y ago
  >The proportion of the population under 20 years old has changed from about 19% to about 12%. That's easily disprovable. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_the_United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_the_United_Sta...
  - jacobolus 3y ago
    Sorry, you're right, that was nonsensical: I was cutting all of the percentages in half. Excuse me. (This was based on looking at a chart where sexes were split and percentages of each age/sex were given out of the total population but I confused myself into thinking it was as a proportion of that sex.) Should have said ~38% to ~24%.
jodrellblank 3y ago
Children choosing to be inside more (games, social media, internet), parents keeping children inside more (24hr news full of horror stories), suburbs too far from anywhere so parents need to drive children everywhere they want to go, not letting them go near the roads because the roads are thought to be too dangerous, decline in availability of parks, malls, 'third places' for children to go outside the home other than school, those would also show up as reduction in deaths by road accidents and yet could be consistent with "oh no my kids couldn't possible cross the street without being immediately killed!" being true.

by pc86 3y ago

jacobolus 3y ago

The number of children hasn't changed that much, only a few percent since 1970. The proportion of the population under 20 years old has changed from ~~~about~19%~to~about~12%~~~ (edit:) about 38% to about 24%.

Clubber 3y ago
>The proportion of the population under 20 years old has changed from about 19% to about 12%. That's easily disprovable. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_the_United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_the_United_Sta...
- jacobolus 3y ago
  Sorry, you're right, that was nonsensical: I was cutting all of the percentages in half. Excuse me. (This was based on looking at a chart where sexes were split and percentages of each age/sex were given out of the total population but I confused myself into thinking it was as a proportion of that sex.) Should have said ~38% to ~24%.

jodrellblank 3y ago

Children choosing to be inside more (games, social media, internet), parents keeping children inside more (24hr news full of horror stories), suburbs too far from anywhere so parents need to drive children everywhere they want to go, not letting them go near the roads because the roads are thought to be too dangerous, decline in availability of parks, malls, 'third places' for children to go outside the home other than school, those would also show up as reduction in deaths by road accidents and yet could be consistent with "oh no my kids couldn't possible cross the street without being immediately killed!" being true.