How Children Lost the Right to Roam in Just 4 Generations

Post by justaman » Thu, Feb 02, 2017, 3:10 PM UTC

balabaster wrote: post #379

kittiepryde wrote: post #341

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am the USA, in like a suburb-ish area. And uh.. Cars on sidewalks? Is that common in London? How did that become a thing? It sounds super dangerous.

It's an every day occurrence in London unfortunately. People park on sidewalks, cars parked down both sides of narrow streets with no room for cars to pass in opposite directions, you have to pull into gaps between parked cars to allow head on traffic to pass. In some places there you only have inches on either wing mirror to even pass through. If you've never been to London, you can't begin to appreciate the width o…

Post by basseq » Thu, Feb 02, 2017, 3:15 PM UTC

talmand wrote: post #405

Kluny wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Media is part of it, but the other part is this, taken from the first comment on the linked article: "I can’t help but notice how many freeways and roads are between Sheffield and Rother Valley. We can’t blame parents alone for the loss of childhood freedom. Since 1919 We have purposely designed our cities to maximize vehicle throughput and require car ownership and the result is an environment that is lethal for 8 y…

Rivers of high-speed traffic in the city? Dude, I feel like I can't allow my kids to walk alone to school that's four blocks over in my own neighborhood without some nanny state enabler calling child services on me. Hell, I don't let them play in the front yard and wonder how long it'll be before I get the knock on the door because I let them play unsupervised in the fenced backyard with a trained full-grown German s…

Post by monocasa » Thu, Feb 02, 2017, 3:17 PM UTC

de_Selby wrote: post #370

ciaranm wrote: post #321

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I make a point of banging on any vehicle that's nearly hit someone and not noticed/acknowledged it - regardless of whether it was me they nearly hit or not. People get mad (especially people driving vans/small trucks), but it's disgraceful that people are driving multi-tonne vehicles and are completely oblivious to their surroundings. I'm glad your daughter is ok.

As a cyclist it happens all the time, it goes something like this: 1) A car comes within centimeters of side swiping me and knocking me down. They don't even notice I'm there. 2) They stop at the next traffic light, I tap on the window to tell them to be more careful. 3) They get angry at me . 4) Other drivers see this interaction and soon you see articles in newspapers complaining about "militant cyclists"

Post by baursak » Thu, Feb 02, 2017, 3:22 PM UTC

thomnottom wrote: post #384

vkou wrote: post #264

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I can assure you, your suburban HOA is extremely caring about what you do. Heaven forbid you change the colour of your curtains.

I've lived in suburbs most of my life and have never had a HOA.

Post by saiya-jin » Thu, Feb 02, 2017, 3:28 PM UTC

DanBC wrote: post #376

fpig wrote: post #374

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It is possible. In fact, we have proof suggesting it's possible (me and millions like me who grew up that way and lived) while we have no proof suggesting otherwise. It's not like children died en masse due to being allowed outside, so people decided it was a bad idea. People just became obsessed with their children's safety and stopped letting them outside just in case. At no point was there some large-scale problem…

> It's not like children died en masse due to being allowed outside Do you know what the rates of accidental death were in the 1970s vs today? I'm not saying you're wrong, I'm just interested if you know the data. EDIT: indeed, most children killed in car accidents were inside the vehicles, so driving kids everywhere may be increasing their risk of death. And a decreasing death rate might just be better car safety fe…