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You should let him ride his bike freely and not give into your fear-based biases. I'll bet if you look up crime statistics, your town is probably safer now then it was then.

So why would you keep him from exploring and learning how to take care of himself alone and with friends?

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Car density plays into this a bit.

I know that my hometown has a LOT more cars than it did when I was growing up in spite of the fact that the population has actually declined.

And car accidents is probably one of the statistics that hasn't declined.

Definitely. Car injuries have stayed roughly the same per capita.

And it seems like many communities have quietly lost pedestrians (it seems like baby boomers are atypically car-dependent compared to the generations before and after them but they're a huge generation and the biggest one in many places).

And now they're in their 70s are far more likely to be involved in in-town crashes (while highway crashes may be weighted towards young men at high speed, residential crashes tend to be old people pressing Gas rather than Brake, or Reverse rather Forward)

More aware of dangers? More likely, more afraid of perceived dangers which are actually very small - and I admit that the same happens to me, even if rationally I know that I should be less worried.

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