It's all fun and games until someone gets kidnapped.
There's also the situation where a lot of American towns/cities aren't so crowded that you can walk everywhere. And not everywhere in America is there good public transportation.
There's also the situation where a lot of American towns/cities aren't so crowded that you can walk everywhere. And not everywhere in America is there good public transportation.
But statistically, how often does that happen? Is it enough to be seriously worried about?
> There's also the situation where a lot of American towns/cities aren't so crowded that you can walk everywhere. And not everywhere in America is there good public transportation.
I don't think it's an issue of being crowded. I think it's an issue of how we design our cities. We assume everyone will have a car, so those that don't have a car (kids) have less independence. A lot of Europe was built before cars existed, so they don't assume that everyone will have their own car.
Traffic accidents are a much, much more prevalent threat.
(There are 800,000 children reported missing each year. 90% have misunderstood directions or ran away on their own initiative. 9% are kidnapped by a family member in a custody dispute.
http://www.pollyklaas.org/about/national-child-kidnapping.ht... )
First off, that's by design. Car-centric infrastructure planning really did a number on the American public. The damages ended up being far worse than just economic.
Second, that's an understatement of the century. Public transportation is pretty much non-existent in most of US. It's good in exactly 1 city (NY), and probably decent in another 2 or 3.