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They'd go outside more if they could WALK anywhere (slrpnk.net)
submitted 1 year ago by to c/memes@slrpnk.net
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[–] 40 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I live in Norway. Growing up, some days in school were reserved for diverse activities. Some of my friends and I decided to bike to the swimming park in the city ~20 miles away. We didn't have to bike on car roads at all to get there, as bike lanes and good side paths lead us the whole way. Being able to get anywhere with a bike at the age of 14 is an amazing level of freedom.

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  • [–] 22 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    Growing up in the 90s in the usa, movies and tv always showed kids riding around on their bikes and not coming home until dark. Where the hell did they go? To get from the suburbs into town would be 10-20 miles riding on the edge of the highway almost wherever you live. No shoulder, no bike lane, no nothing (I did this to get to work for about a year. it sucked, got hit by a truck twice in that time.)

    Norway sounds great.

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  • [–] 8 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    Riding bikes was a fun activity. The point wasn't to go somewhere.

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  • [–] 10 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    Riding around in the suburbs get old fast if you can't occasionally go more into the city or out into the countryside or to some other interesting place.

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  • [–] 7 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    I didn't feel like it ever got old, as a kid. I used to love riding down hills with my friends, with our feet off the pedals to see how fast we could go. Or we'd just ride aimlessly until we'd see some old building to explore, or an animal to try to catch, or a tree to climb, or an interesting person to talk to. I don't think I started feeling like we needed to be going "somewhere" until I was a teen. People aren't as nice about groups of teens riding around randomly.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    As a kid I was quite content doing laps around my neighborhood. When I got together with other kids we'd wander further, and since it was a small town, adults would keep an eye on us.

    Nowadays if you let kids wander around like that you get cited for abandonment.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago

    I think it must vary a lot from place to place. I lived in Southern Louisiana until recently, and it's still common there to see kids out by themselves, walking from place to place, playing in the street, or riding bikes around the neighborhood with friends. No one seems to have a problem with it.

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  • [–] 5 points 1 year ago

    UK here, not perfect but we did have quite a few paths that either don't allow cars or don't have many so cycling around was pretty easy. Cars make people lazy. Many people I know will drive to avoid an 800m walk.

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