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Everything else is not really worth the effort in comparison.
Under these conditions, I don't understand why it matters how big the car is. Teach your children not to cross the road.
I spent hours roaming the streets on my bike as a kid in Germany, now I hear my coworkers saying things like "I don't leave my 10 year old unsupervised for more than 10 minutes. If I have to go somewhere, he's coming with me."
It leaves me flabbergasted.
Cars cross the sidewalk.
To me, your claim rings somewhat false. I can think of many children that had injuries of all kinds but only know of one who was hit by a car--a car that was a small sedan and didn't have any issue seeing the pedestrian because it was "too tall".
Cars are weapons and should be severely limited on public roads, especially in terms of speed (all cars should have speed governors).
Of course it can be done and happens every day. But it is a horrible example for anything family related.
EDIT: Okay, arguably some places like maybe the Netherlands (which has excellent anti-car infra) are better, but I've seen it all at this point and I am convinced NYC is still the best, even though there are too many cars and too much surface area is dedicated to cars.
Note: The infrastructure in the Netherlands is not anti-car. It's not an xor thing!
Pedestrians, Bikes, Trains, Ships, and Cars. The Netherlands gives a lot of love to infrastructure for all modes of mobility.
But... people do drive American trucks like that out in the countryside as utility vehicles. Where there's a bit of room to maneuver, it can be done.
And of course, outside Amsterdam city center: you've got all-paved-roads even in the countryside (well maintained with few potholes), reasonable speed limits, highways that stay dry even when it rains, traffic lights that let you through the moment they see you coming (at an empty intersection at least), traffic jam detector systems, highway entrances and exits that you can take on cruise control -as opposed to trying to kill you- (I'm looking at you, Germany ;-) ), and much much more!
* ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8RRE2rDw4k "The Best Country in the World for Drivers" )
* https://youtu.be/SDXB0CY2tSQ?t=437 (business parks... people in the comments were kind of riled up about this particular traffic light. Would work fine with an F150 ;-) )
The 2 best selling vehicle models in the USA are the Ford F-series and Chevy equivalent (Silverado), according to some sources[1][2]. I agree they're absurd for what are effectively overpowered wheelchairs that make you fat and reduce your IQ[3], but it is what it is.
[1]: https://www.caranddriver.com/news/g43553191/bestselling-cars...
[2]: https://www.edmunds.com/most-popular-cars/
[3]: https://www.unep.org/news-and-stories/story/air-pollution-li...
Thoughts and posts like yours are why conservative popularity is increasing, why so hostile?
Sorry for being blunt, but where you grew up brainwashed you. Or you are young and very naive or like to speak in hyperbole.
The most sold vehicle in the US is being used for work purposes and has been since the truck was invented. There are many people that drive trucks outside of work, but you are very misinformed.
I lived in NYC for 20+ years without a car. On a hot summer night walking close to Holland tunnel brought rage to me as well. Hopefully the much needed congestion pricing will help.
Cars are obviously not weapons, they are vehicles. The definition of weapon is something which primary use case is to kill or maim. The primary use case of a car is transportation.
Do you say that a pencil is a weapon? You could stab yourself by accident with a pencil.
Cars not only have the direct immediate effect as weapons (i.e., using them to drive into/over people), but they also have significant second and third order effects such as the pollution from emissions, tires, production and supply chains, destruction of the environment from road construction, cement production emissions, and so on and so forth. There are also the health effects of people forgetting how to use their bodies to move themselves, being isolated inside an insulated box such that nobody interacts with those around them, which leads people to be hostile, aggressive, violent, and so on.
Cars are weapons and they're killing us.
As a kid that played without parental oversight we met every crazy person and every dog in town. This is still quite normal in the area I grew up in and I have never heard from anybody ever being seriously hurt by a dog or a crazy person in our area. Avoiding dangerous situations is something kids have to learn, and kids are not stupid. It is much more common that kids are too afraid than kids not having respect in the presence of a noticed danger.
That being said, many places in the US are downright kid-hostile, often because a failure to deal with social, economic, mental problems adequately or have good spacing concepts where people outside of cars count something.
A few times per week. Many people here have aggressive dogs and zero control over them.
Dog bite is a serous injury that requires hospital visit and painful antibiotics for several days. Saying anything else is a bs!
> Avoiding dangerous situations is something kids have to learn, and kids are not stupid
You can not avoid dogs! They are everywhere, are larger, faster and with zero responsibility! There is adult who owns the dog! Putting blame and responsibility on kids is foolish! Staying indoor is only logical solution!
> are too afraid
... Kid provoked the dog attack by being afraid... My favorite excuse.
Kids need to go outdoors on their own to grow up. They need to extend the radius in which they be active on their own. You can't lock kids until they go to college or university. Otherwise they become young adults unfit to live an independent live.
I am not going to force my kid outside, if it has panic attacks from neighbours pitbulls!
What city do you live in?
Never seen or heard of such a place, but I'm not going to pretend to know every city in the world, so very curious to know where the town is overrun by dogs and crazy people running after you (if nothing else, so I don't visit).
> Every public park turned into dog toilet!
Yeah this one I get, so many spaces are not friendly for play because there's dog shit around.
In most of Europe you don't find shit like this anymore, gladly. When I was young it was still common (yet nothing that stopped us from playing outside)
Writing this from France where literally nobody cares about dog shit, still.
I don't know which country you're in, but certainly where I live people have gotten a lot better at picking up after their dogs since I was a kid. Growing up people let their dogs shit wherever and basically never picked it up. Today virtually everybody picks up after dogs.
I remember this being somewhat of an issue as a kid in the same area but it's hard to gauge how it's changed because I was a kid then and a parent now.
I'm in the NW in the UK.
what there wasn't: computers, consoles, smartphones and sooo many cars. in my old neighbourhood places I used to roam around have all been taken over by parked cars.
After covid there are like 3x more dogs. Several people own multiple dogs, even in small flats. Dog bans are no longer enforced. And zero training!