Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Learning the ropes: why Germany is building risk into its playgrounds (2021)

theguardian.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 162 posts

Re: Learning the ropes: why Germany is building risk into its playgrounds (2021)

#41

Post by lynx23 »

mschuster91 wrote: post #19
janmarsal wrote: post #9

I remember when I was a teen I started noticing how the nanny state had managed to remove all the old swings I used to play with and replaced them with some tiny and safe swings that no one even uses anymore. Children even started wearing yellow safety vests to school all of a sudden. I'm glad there's at least some backlash to this nonsense.

> Children even started wearing yellow safety vests to school all of a sudden. Given how many accidents happen on the way to school ("Schulwegunfälle", yes we have a dedicated word for it), it's absolutely necessary. 62k accidents in 2021, and 16 dead kids [1]. A large part of the cause is how absurdly car-centric our cities are - and yet, we're harmless compared to the US. [1] https://www.dguv.de/de/zahlen-fakten/sc…

"Absolutely necessary" is your personal opinion. I, for one, disagree with that.

Re: Learning the ropes: why Germany is building risk into its playgrounds (2021)

#42

Post by mschuster91 »

LeanderK wrote: post #27
mschuster91 wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Children even started wearing yellow safety vests to school all of a sudden. Given how many accidents happen on the way to school ("Schulwegunfälle", yes we have a dedicated word for it), it's absolutely necessary. 62k accidents in 2021, and 16 dead kids [1]. A large part of the cause is how absurdly car-centric our cities are - and yet, we're harmless compared to the US. [1] https://www.dguv.de/de/zahlen-fakten/sc…

> 16 dead kids of course every preventable death is too much and we should be aiming at zero...but 16 doesn't seem that much? I would have guessed more for sure.

In the last few years, the residential street where I live had multiple accidents caused by inattentive or plain racing drivers. One child ended up in hospital for weeks after being run over by a speeding car, a woman ended up dead after being run over by a lorry, and from my window I can see dangerous behavior from motorists alllll the time. Not good if you have three schools, (at least) two kindergartens and a sports area used by all of them.

The problem is, the street is fucking wide - it used to be the supply road for a beer factory and only got developed into pure residential and schools zoning two decades ago, and that seems to invite people to not give a fuck.

Re: Learning the ropes: why Germany is building risk into its playgrounds (2021)

#43

Post by mschuster91 »

fsckboy wrote: post #33
swimfar wrote: post #13

It doesn't look like they are building risk into the playgrounds, as much as they are building the feeling of risk. which isn't necessarily a bad thing. This seems like a compromise that should be seen as better, or at least acceptable to both extremes of parents. "The maximum fall height in the Triitopia structure’s spiderweb is 1.8 metres." That's not a risky fall, if you're falling onto a rope net. Also, "The Trii…

i wonder if it will be discovered as fun to "base-jump" into the net

Not really, as you will notice and learn that the ropes are damn stiff and have metal ties to form the grid.

Re: Learning the ropes: why Germany is building risk into its playgrounds (2021)

#44

Post by wanderingstan »

swimfar wrote: post #13

It doesn't look like they are building risk into the playgrounds, as much as they are building the feeling of risk. which isn't necessarily a bad thing. This seems like a compromise that should be seen as better, or at least acceptable to both extremes of parents. "The maximum fall height in the Triitopia structure’s spiderweb is 1.8 metres." That's not a risky fall, if you're falling onto a rope net. Also, "The Trii…

However they say that some broken bones are acceptable, which are more than just a “feeling of risk”.

Re: Learning the ropes: why Germany is building risk into its playgrounds (2021)

#45

Post by grogenaut »

munchler wrote: post #18
zabzonk wrote: post #5

I don't know, kids these days. You should have seen what we had to contend with in the 60s - huge lumps of flesh mangling metal, swinging at terrifying angles, throwing small children off in all directions. And no wimpy rubber mats to catch them. Sometimes, I wonder that I survived.

I took a steel see-saw to the face on one of those playgrounds in the 1970’s. My little sister pulled her end down, which caused my end to shoot up unexpectedly. Ouch. Ruined my day for sure.

I let my brother (6?) unsupervised for one minute and some much larger kid got on the other side jumped up and when they came back down my brothers face smashed into the metal pipe handle bars splitting his lip wide open, he came right over streaming blood, I was 8, so I immediately went to find mom and dad who were doing champion hunting dog obedience qualifiers and I think I saw dad first who was actually showing the dog at the time and walked into the show area to get him. Immediately to the hospital. Pretty sure dad was non-plussed but also pouring blood.

Re: Learning the ropes: why Germany is building risk into its playgrounds (2021)

#46

Post by Rebelgecko »

PoignardAzur wrote: post #37
chmod775 wrote: post #15

These things are ubiquitous in Berlin: https://stage.berliner-seilfabrik.com/wp-content/uploads/201... They're not actually that high to an adult, but I have childhood memories of these seeming somewhat tall and scary. On an average one, a young child can fall 4-6 times their own height (but not straight, you'll get buffered by the structure as you go down).

Pretty common in Paris too. I wish they made versions that were socially acceptable for adults to climb. These things were awesome .

IIRC there's one in San Antonio that isn't explicitly just for children

Re: Learning the ropes: why Germany is building risk into its playgrounds (2021)

#48

Post by wnevets »

Is anyone else like me and just sick & tired of the boomerification of the public discourse? There isn't anything more wrong with kids these days compared to previous generations. Participation trophies didn't matter, foam playgrounds didn't create "soft" kids. Its all non-sense.

"What is happening to our young people? They disrespect their elders, they disobey their parents. They ignore the law. They riot in the streets, inflamed with wild notions. Their morals are decaying. What is to become of them?" - Plato

Re: Learning the ropes: why Germany is building risk into its playgrounds (2021)

#50

Post by tunnuz »

magicalhippo wrote: post #26

Someone I know designed playgrounds. One of his core concepts was that there's two aspects to safety. One is subjective. Like when you're high up and you see the ground beneath you, you know it'll hurt if you fall down, so you're more careful moving around. Then there's all the hidden dangers that kids don't think about or see[1], like a small gap where a cord from the clothing can get attached potentially leading to…

Very interesting, I never thought of safety that way. Thanks for sharing this.
Post reply on HN