America was no less a car culture in the 80’s and yet we had much more mobility. I was walking to school by myself as a six year old, and everyone else did. Now your parents did.
It’s only the perception of risk that changed.
It’s only the perception of risk that changed.
The more people travel by car, the worse the experience is for everybody else.
For example, as more people drive their kids to school, fewer people become comfortable letting their own kids walk because the traffic around the school is so much worse. The actual danger, not just the perception of it, has increased. And besides the increased danger, there is also noise, peer pressure, etc.
Without better policies the situation will not improve.
If anything, all sorts of traffic deaths are much lower than they were when I was a kid.
It’s not cars parents fear, it’s crime
It was still tragic, of course, but I think people find it significantly more tragic if you have one child, and that child does not make it through childhood.
But I definitely agree that both are factors. I think the perception comes largely from the Internet. Everyone thinks crime is going up, even when it is going down, and the only reason that makes any sense is that we simply hear more about it.
The norms changed due to different assessment of risk, then, perhaps other risks followed