You're also putting Europe on a pedestal. In many urban areas (where the majority of the population lives) it's no longer safe for kids to walk + bike to school freely. Not necessarily because of cars but significant crime.
> Not necessarily because of cars but significant crime.
And I agree it's usually about racism.
If you live in Europe, just look at the EU Parliament elections and see how the far right did. Or follow the political discourse in pretty much any European country.
If you're not hearing it, your not paying attention to pretty much any political reporting.
[1] https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2024/04/24/what-the-...
"Don't believe me go to Europe and Japan where kids are still allowed to walk"
This is the top rated comment here, the line by itself is about as ridiculous as any other. Every kid in Europe is allowed to walk to school? How is this any different that than the US?
As far as I can tell, American Internet mostly wants you to think that their own culture war is important and relevant universally, including for you. And that their own particular division of issues between their political poles is also somehow universal and important; and that you should get riled up about it.
Crime has decreased pretty much everywhere over the last three decades. I am sure there are pockets in the world where it hasn't, but those would be the exception.
[https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/homicide-rates-across-wes...]
…Except the 40 000 who do die by car, every single year, in the US alone. Countless more injured and permanently disabled. Meanwhile criminals are indeed a whole different problem. (an imaginary one)
Some other interesting statistics: 25% of pedestrians killed were drunk, while only 19% of the time the driver was (these overlap, both drunk, in 6% of cases.) 3/4ths of pedestrian fatalities occur at night. 2/3rds don't occur in a crosswalk.
Take away: kids who don't drink, don't stay out at night and use crosswalks are significantly less likely to be hit.
https://injuryfacts.nsc.org/motor-vehicle/road-users/pedestr...
https://www.ghsa.org/resources/news-releases/GHSA/Ped-Spotli...
Criminals bring 0 value and all risk. Criminals also do more than just murder.
(And what kind of crime? We don’t really have lots of drive-by-shootings here, kids aren’t exactly a prime target for robberies either)
I would say one off the biggest threat for pedestrians in European city are electric scooters.
How many deaths have they caused? How do those stats compare to the deaths caused by motor vehicles? Which one is more dangerous based on that data?
I have looked at local pedestrian casualty statistics and motor vehicles are by far the largest cause of injury and death in the large city where I live. I haven't even been able to find what was the last time that a cyclist or e-scooter rider killed a pedestrian. Meanwhile, cars and trucks have killed four cyclists this year alone.
this is bullshit, cars kill and injure orders of magnitude more people in Europe than scooters do. That's not to say there's 0 issues with scooters, because there are, but focus should remain on cars, not scooters.
The crime that has been *falling* throughout the entire western world after peaking in the mid 1990's ?
crime=/=crime
The park were we hung out as kids is now inhabited by drug dealers. Obviously no place for kids, or families or basically anyone else, I will try to avoid if I reasonably can. And of course there was no increase in statistical crime, as it just is not getting prosecuted, although it is clear as day that it is happening.
Crime stats are hugely misleading if you want to figure out what a social environment looks like.
I live in Europe and I see groups of kids hanging out by themselves all the time in many, many major cities across the continent.