In US at least even inside gated communities u can't leave kids (3-6) by themselves because cars. Imagine all those kids having fun without parent supervision.
Then I have good news for you: for not that much effort, you can move to Europe. Several cities here are bike friendly and becoming more so every week.
Here are the streets that are becoming pedestrian in Brussels, two weeks from now: https://www.brusselstimes.com/brussels-2/248559/the-brussels...
By your own logic, can't he just stay in the US?
https://www.amny.com/transit/times-square-car-free-1-3198229...
Emigration seems tough without a company sponsoring you, though.
My understanding is that Portugal is another easy place to move to. However, it's a bit more difficult. I don't know the specifics, but I think you need to buy property valued at €200k or higher or something. It's cheaper than the Netherlands, but English is less spoken, and my understanding is that there's a huge influx of immigrants (especially American) which are driving up the cost of living for locals.
You can also check out the "IWantOut" subreddit.
It would also require the neighbourhood to have much more relaxed (and saner) zoning rules than the average, and historically it's been the exact opposite.
I hope your kids will find a better life for theirs.
I'm impressed you remember what you were doing at 3 to be honest.
You know nothing about the GP’s neighborhood or living situation. Dismiss it as “stranger danger” if you wish, but what if their concerns about the safety of unsupervised children is rooted in some genuine concern? Again, they just said cars weren’t the main reason. Doesn’t that imply something else?
But a 3 year old does lots of fairly dumb things. E.g. swallow a single lithium battery and you can die.
Because cars is the wrong answer. In the 60s and 70s the kids were running around the streets all day and cars then were bigger and harder to control.
(I'm assuming you mean 5-10 yo as 3/4/5 really do need supervision even in safe environments)
For what it’s worth: the right answer is still cars, just indirectly. Yes there are more factors but those factors are caused by how American suburbia is designed and evolved over the last fifty decades, which, surprise …
Walking to school is impossible in most of the US. Biking to school on six lane stroads is unthinkable especially for a child. Mobility is freedom and independence, and that independence is removed from American children. And so things evolve in exactly one direction: that of less and less freedom to roam the dangerous streets.
Parents of children in the 60s and 70s were raised with their full freedom and had no reason to prevent their kids from roaming the streets. It takes multiple generations for these changes to take effect in the mindsets of people. America will take decades to heal from its car centric mistakes… when it finally starts.
This is not true where I live in Tacoma, WA. In fact, in our neighborhood on the North End, I would guess somewhere around 40% of kids walk to school. There is an elementary school two blocks away from me, and a middle school five or so blocks away. The private schools are a bit further and would require driving or cycling.
The neighborhoods I used to live in the residential areas of the Seattle core(Madrona,Leschi,CD) were similar.
Either way, are you seriously going to sit here and argue with someone that a 4 hour walking distance to a school is somehow normal? Even in the US? I’m sorry dude but I’m done talking to you. I hope you enjoy the unique place that you live in.
Even if we ignore the threat of being run over, constant noise, pollution, less space for walking etc
Cars create a vacuum where if you were mugged in plain day light next to a motorway everyone knows the chances of being helped by a motorist is incredibly low
But if there are more pedestrians around you, the chance of getting help from a stranger goes up
Cars create dangerous deserts everywhere and that's why we don't let kids out
One is more likely to be mugged in New York than in a Kansas suburb. Long before cars existed, people have been terrorized by highwaymen on country roads with little help or recourse. If anything, cars have likely reduced muggings as fewer people on the streets have created fewer opportunities to be overtaken and robbed.
Or maybe a large clump of people makes everyone more likely to experience the bystander effect.
Plus, cars today are actually heavier IIRC, and faster.
Car density has increased a lot in many of these places, as has average speed (due to widening efforts, it seems). They are also bigger and also heavier on average. Or at least weight has been increasing since the 80s. It did dip a bit earlier from then, as the large steel frame cars shrunk due to gas prices. Visibility is a mixed bag but is often worse now in the front (cabs are much higher), which is pretty critical for the kids-running-around scenario. Pickups are especially egregious in this way. They are much bigger, much heavier, and have terrible visibility these days. They are a growing segment for reasons unrelated to their nominal function.
A friend recently commented after visiting his childhood home (parents still lived there). He spent the Sunday evening on the front porch, an recalled when he was a kid they would probably have been playing street hockey all evening in the neighbourhood, but that would be impossible now.
> In US at least even inside gated communities u can't leave kids (3-6) by themselves because cars.
This part is sad to me because it seems we are stuck envisioning a place where all the houses face the roads, and all the walking paths are next to the roads and the only place kids can play is in the road or next to the road!
As an alternative, imagine a house that backs up to a park. Instead of playing in the front by the road, play in the back without conditions (I can recommend you some examples).
Or, imagine even in a downtown of a city, a one-block-long gated community with dense townhouses facing each other, an oasis away from traffic (again I can share examples)
These exist today, they aren’t just in some urbanist sketchbook. They aren’t super common and maybe people just don’t think of them.
I can let my kids out anytime.
It was built during the "million program" where the Swedish state built apartments for a shitload of people and elevated the living standards for about 2 million people.
For some reason it is not considered a nice area, but in many ways it is heaven. I can bike to work in 12 minutes. My son's preschool is just 5 minutes away by foot. We have a moderately sized grocery store and a pharmacy within crawling distance.
All areas in the "million programme" are not like that, but one pretty general idea was that since people living there didn't have their own garden they should have access to ample green spaces.
I’m hoping that if it is successful, developers will build similar projects elsewhere.
The Japanese have kei cars, the Dutch and other people living in bicycle-centric cities cargo bikes - sometimes you just need the extra luggage space.