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I don't believe this, I think some people are imbued with a sense of direction and others aren't. Some are only capable of following turn by turn instructions, they don't comprehend where they are in relation to anything. My two older kids have the worst sense of direction I've ever encountered but my 3 year old has built in GPS. We were all in the car going somewhere one day and sitting at an intersection my 3 year…
I drive myself everywhere and still don't know where I'm going.
I don't believe this, I think some people are imbued with a sense of direction and others aren't. Some are only capable of following turn by turn instructions, they don't comprehend where they are in relation to anything. My two older kids have the worst sense of direction I've ever encountered but my 3 year old has built in GPS. We were all in the car going somewhere one day and sitting at an intersection my 3 year…
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i chuckled. do you use gps?
It's for the explicit reason I refuse to use it, basically. So I at least know the routes I take frequently and have a chance to learn new ones from time to time. I remember years ago when I still used a GPS there were routes I would drive frequently that I couldn't drive without the GPS. But what I really meant by the comment is despite living 30 years in the same city I barely know where anything is. Especially in…
Going back to a city I haven't been in for a few years, when things have changed, I find harder to navigate even when I roughly know the layout. I need to relearn some visual cues.
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Not sure where you are in the world, but in most of the developed world things have never been safer. So, the answer to your questions is a resounding "yes". Yes, it's safe for kids to walk around their neighborhoods these days.
I live in Cupertino, near Apple HQ. Obviously you can walk around but I rarely see anyone do... and I generally have never seen kids unattended around here (living here for 17 years).
I grew up in Moscow, and my family used a private car to get around the city. I always knew where I was, because I figured one day my turn would come to navigate the roads on my own. I’m raising my daughter in Manhattan, the least car-friendly place in the US. Until we ditched transit and began driving everywhere, she had no idea where we were or in which direction we were heading. Nowadays she makes suggestions from…
Did you rely primarily on the subway system before you ditched transit?
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I live in Cupertino, near Apple HQ. Obviously you can walk around but I rarely see anyone do... and I generally have never seen kids unattended around here (living here for 17 years).
The west side of the city is a lot quieter, and it's not uncommon to see people out and about here. The entrance to the Hammond-Snyder Loop trail isn't the most discoverable from where I live, but it's just a couple blocks away and I see people on the train tracks near it occasionally.
I mean obviously I know from experience and being a kid at one point that apartment complexes are overly infested with kids running around, but pretty sure given the year and parenting, most if not all kids under the age of 15 don't freely walk in the streets.
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The west side of the city is a lot quieter, and it's not uncommon to see people out and about here. The entrance to the Hammond-Snyder Loop trail isn't the most discoverable from where I live, but it's just a couple blocks away and I see people on the train tracks near it occasionally.
In either case, have you ever seen a kid running around? I mean obviously I know from experience and being a kid at one point that apartment complexes are overly infested with kids running around, but pretty sure given the year and parenting, most if not all kids under the age of 15 don't freely walk in the streets.
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i chuckled. do you use gps?
GPS only makes it worse. It turns out that interpreting an on-screen map takes a non-trivial amount of brainpower that should be directed into safe driving.
Safe driving is useless driving if it doesn't get you where you want to go. And risk goes up slightly more than linearly in travel time.