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> The “walk” to the store includes crossing a 45-mph, four-lane stroad with no midblock crosswalk, no traffic calming, and a median that hides oncoming traffic.

> The “walk” to the store includes crossing a 45-mph, four-lane stroad with no midblock crosswalk, no traffic calming, and a median that hides oncoming traffic. Yes, this is bad design. But I do think it’s negligent to let a child cross this road unsupervised. If it was a suburban street this would be crazy, but it’s not and I think them being charged is reasonable

falcor84 1y ago
I disagree. My parents let me walk around the city when I was 7, and I think that I would have been worse off if they hadn't. As I see it, if a kid is old enough for compulsory education, then they're old enough to walk outside without parental supervision.
- potato3732842 1y ago
  At 7? Really? I was allowed to roam dilapidated industrial sites and ride my bike on the streets around at age 7-10 but I wasn't allowed anywhere near a 4-lane boulevard with high speed traffic like that. Heck, the highway I wasn't allowed to cross didn't even have four lanes. There's a pretty big difference between random streets and a 4-lane arterial road like this one. I would take great care crossing it as an adult and I would only consider letting a kid cross it with explicit instructions to use a marked crossing or wait for traffic to stop for them and practice doing it accompanied.
  - fellowniusmonk 1y ago
    I lived ON a four lane 55mph road that was a heavily trafficked arterial road and crossed it all the time at 7. Roads 100% are community killers, it's insane that people put up with such extreme infantilization and isolation, no wonder deaths of despair and chronic loneliness is on the rise. We've cultivated our own sad fragility.
    - potato3732842 1y ago
      >I lived ON a four lane 55mph road that was a heavily trafficked arterial road and crossed it all the time at 7. And you just waltzed across it when it looked clear or you used marked crossings, timed it with the lights after practice with your parents, etc.? I'm not saying there aren't ways to cross this road and that a 7yo can't be taught a couple of them, but to just turn a 7-10yo pair loose-ish on it seems foolish. >Roads 100% are community killers, There were a bunch of contributory factors leading to this kid's death. You're just as ignorant and wrong as the prosecutor who thinks this is all the parents fault. >It's insane that people put up with such extreme infantilization and isolation, Surely you see the irony here (by which I mean you are unwise for having a self-contradictory opinion)? You're basically saying that "people can't handle these roads". They clearly can. 4-lane boulevards with medians are all over even the most walkable cities in Europe. And some of America's worst cities for walking are grids that lack bigger roads (i.e tons of 2-lane grid). The devil is in the details.
      - fellowniusmonk 1y ago
        I literally ran across it when it was clear, we were over a mile from the nearest crossing. We should have safer roads, we should stop hating ourselves and our fellow citizens, parents should not have to hover around their kids constantly, the burden of parenting has gone up an insane amount since I was a kid and there isn't a well justified reason for it.
    - enaaem 1y ago
      In the 70s there were massive protests in the Netherlands called "Stop the Child Murder". People were used to safe streets where children could cycle independently to school, go to sports clubs and hang out with their friends around the city. Then cars came and started killing their children. At the height of the killings, 420 Children were killed per year: that is more than 1 per day. 3200 people were killed per year if you include adults. You can imagine that even more were wounded and maimed. So yeah. You don't have to accept that roads are community killers.

falcor84 1y ago

I disagree. My parents let me walk around the city when I was 7, and I think that I would have been worse off if they hadn't. As I see it, if a kid is old enough for compulsory education, then they're old enough to walk outside without parental supervision.

potato3732842 1y ago
At 7? Really? I was allowed to roam dilapidated industrial sites and ride my bike on the streets around at age 7-10 but I wasn't allowed anywhere near a 4-lane boulevard with high speed traffic like that. Heck, the highway I wasn't allowed to cross didn't even have four lanes. There's a pretty big difference between random streets and a 4-lane arterial road like this one. I would take great care crossing it as an adult and I would only consider letting a kid cross it with explicit instructions to use a marked crossing or wait for traffic to stop for them and practice doing it accompanied.
- fellowniusmonk 1y ago
  I lived ON a four lane 55mph road that was a heavily trafficked arterial road and crossed it all the time at 7. Roads 100% are community killers, it's insane that people put up with such extreme infantilization and isolation, no wonder deaths of despair and chronic loneliness is on the rise. We've cultivated our own sad fragility.
  - potato3732842 1y ago
    >I lived ON a four lane 55mph road that was a heavily trafficked arterial road and crossed it all the time at 7. And you just waltzed across it when it looked clear or you used marked crossings, timed it with the lights after practice with your parents, etc.? I'm not saying there aren't ways to cross this road and that a 7yo can't be taught a couple of them, but to just turn a 7-10yo pair loose-ish on it seems foolish. >Roads 100% are community killers, There were a bunch of contributory factors leading to this kid's death. You're just as ignorant and wrong as the prosecutor who thinks this is all the parents fault. >It's insane that people put up with such extreme infantilization and isolation, Surely you see the irony here (by which I mean you are unwise for having a self-contradictory opinion)? You're basically saying that "people can't handle these roads". They clearly can. 4-lane boulevards with medians are all over even the most walkable cities in Europe. And some of America's worst cities for walking are grids that lack bigger roads (i.e tons of 2-lane grid). The devil is in the details.
    - fellowniusmonk 1y ago
      I literally ran across it when it was clear, we were over a mile from the nearest crossing. We should have safer roads, we should stop hating ourselves and our fellow citizens, parents should not have to hover around their kids constantly, the burden of parenting has gone up an insane amount since I was a kid and there isn't a well justified reason for it.
  - enaaem 1y ago
    In the 70s there were massive protests in the Netherlands called "Stop the Child Murder". People were used to safe streets where children could cycle independently to school, go to sports clubs and hang out with their friends around the city. Then cars came and started killing their children. At the height of the killings, 420 Children were killed per year: that is more than 1 per day. 3200 people were killed per year if you include adults. You can imagine that even more were wounded and maimed. So yeah. You don't have to accept that roads are community killers.