Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I'm somewhat skeptical that the Dutch social safety net is why Dutch parents let their kids "ride their bikes in the rain unsupervised" It's blindingly obvious for anybody who has experienced both sides. Dutch parents let their children outside because the roads are safe for children to bike and walk. bikelanes, bumpouts, bollards, slow cars in town, ... American roads are a thunderdome by comparison. Most american…
> American roads are a thunderdome by comparison. Teach your kids to not challenge Master Blaster to to-the-death combat in Thunderdome if it really worries you. My concern has never, ever been that they'll get run over. Not by age 7 or 8, when I would consider letting them wander unsupervised. There are many traffic fatalities in the US each year, but those occur not to people crossing suburban streets (or rural roa…
They are not key determinants. There are places in america you will see kids outside doing things. New urbanist developments, core of college towns, neighborhoods in big cities, ... And this is because stuff worth doing for kids is safely accessible without car there.
The big intellectual tragedy of the 2nd half of the 20th century is that we have become blind to the fact that much of our behavior, aspirations, dispositions are technologically determined, and not the other way around.