For anyone excited by the outdoor gym illustration:
The dangerous playgrounds of 1900s through vintage photographs
https://rarehistoricalphotos.com/dangerous-playgrounds-1900s...
HN discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31855163
The dangerous playgrounds of 1900s through vintage photographs
https://rarehistoricalphotos.com/dangerous-playgrounds-1900s...
HN discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31855163
If that's the best argument in favor, I'll stick with the current playgrounds. Kids got seriously injured when I was growing up. One of them broke his leg. At least one broke an arm. Smaller injuries like getting scraped up and having bruises were very common. I don't think the cost-benefit analysis worked out in favor of dangerous playgrounds. Most of the arguments in favor apply equally well to having kids jump out of moving vehicles.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Action_Park
Documentary:
> The Bailey Ball was an Alpine Center attraction developed and tested, but never opened to the public, as a result of those tests. It consisted of a large foam sphere in which a rider could be secured, and then rolled downward. The plan was to do it on a track with PVC pipe as its outer rails, and one was built alongside a ski trail.[11]: 16:25
> The designers neglected to take into account the tendency of PVC pipe to expand in heat. During the first test, with a state inspector present on a hot summer day, the ball, with a man inside testing it, went off the track as a result of the pipe expanding and bounded down the adjacent ski slope. It continued through the parking lot, across Route 94, and came to rest in a swamp. After it came to a natural stop at the bottom, the inspector left without saying anything and park management abandoned the project.[11]: 16:25 [43]
(Not that exact one, but a similar model in my part of Hampshire).
I've not had a good look at playgrounds the last few years (none where I usually go for a walk), but the ones in my childhood weren't as tall like in the last pictures, but tall enough that I sprained my ankle when jumping down... one day before my first day at school.
My local roundabout was a flat metal thing 3 ft off the ground with only tarmac to cushion the fall, and the slide must have been 18 ft tall. The monkey bars were more than tall enough for an adult, again with the same tarmac.
And the tarmac was ancient with loose gravel, so you got stones embedded in your grazes.
Them were the days!