[email protected] (Hunrobe) wrote in message news:<
[email protected]>...
> >"Just zis Guy, you know?"
[email protected]
>
> wrote:
> >I want to know why it's no longer safe for a group of kids to be out unsupervised. Would having a
> >parent there have made the unlicensed driver any safer?
> >
>
> Guy, read the article. The child was THREE years old. Three year olds do not belong anywhere
> outside their home unsupervised, period.
This incident makes me think of a lot of things--first and foremost, that even 3-4-5 yr. olds can be
taught to NEVER run out the end of a driveway without stopping & looking first. This is the #1 way
young kids are killed on bikes. Speaking from experience, it is quite possible to teach the average
3 or 4 yr old to stop and look EVERY time. Just like it is possible to teach them to never play with
electrical plugs. Sure, there will never be 100% compliance at that age. But there will be pretty
darn good compliance. But most parents don't know the importance of this, so they don't even try.
But even more than that, IMHO, we need to take back our neighborhood streets. People, not cars, live
in neighborhoods.
People do a number of things in their neighborhoods. One of those things is driving automobiles to
go somewhere. For the 1/4 mile or so it takes to get out of a neighborhood and onto bigger/faster
streets, it is quite feasible for cars to drive at a speed that is **completely** compatible with
the other human activities that go on where we live.
Some countries do this--design their neighborhoods and cities on a human scale and with people, not
automobiles, as the design imperative--and the quality of life in such places is much higher, the
accident rates much lower.
There is no reason under the sun for a garbage truck to be going down a residential street, where
kids are known to play, at a speed higher than about 8 MPH.
It's interesting that Guy mentioned the much better situation in the UK than in the US.
Transportation revoluationary Mayer Hillman, from the UK, had these interesting and
provocative thoughts:
--
Road intersections should be raised to pavement level to give priority
to pedestrians . . . in 1971, 80% of seven- and eight-year-old
children went to school on their own, by 1990 only 9% were making the
journey unaccompanied, with more than four times as many seven- to
11-year-olds being driven in 1990 compared with 20 years earlier . . .
[the] view that the roads are safer because the accident rate has gone
down is deeply flawed . . . Quite the opposite. Child road deaths have
fallen because there aren't many children near them any more. . .
.Children's lives have been evolving in a way that mirrors the
characteristics of the lives of criminals in prison. They, too, have a
roof over their heads, regular meals and entertainment provided for
them, but they are not free to go out. . . . Fifty years ago, cycle
mileage exceeded car mileage. Now it's the other way around. While
most children own a bicycle, few are allowed to use it as a means of
transport . . . Compared with walking, bicycling has the potential to
expand a person's geographical catchment area 10- to 15-fold . . . A
new Danish road traffic act in 1976 made it the police and traffic
authority's responsibility, in consultation with schools, to protect
children from traffic on their way to and from school. They created a
network of traffic-free foot and cycle paths, established low-speed
areas, narrowed roads and introduced traffic islands. Accidents fell
by 85%. In Denmark, more than 20% of all journeys are made by bicycle
. . . for every life year lost through accidents [while bicycling], 20
are gained through improved health and fitness.
Excerpts from an article in The Guardian, Nov 2, 2002. See
http://www.guardian.co.uk/weekend/story/0,3605,823111,00.html
--
--Brent
bhugh [at] mwsc.edu
www.MoBikeFed.org