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Things Drivers Have Sacrificed for Kids
(thelemmy.club)
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this post was submitted on 04 Aug 2026
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IMHO saying that "car culture -> less people walking -> more crime -> more fear -> less kids on the streets" is a bit of a stretch. I'm sure it can be true in some areas but is far from universal rule. European cities are very walkable yet no one lets small kids play outside alone. Many villages are way less walkable yet kids play outside alone without issues. This meme tries to imply that kids don't play outside because of cars yet it's only one of contributing factors and only in some places.
You can take it up with Jane Jacobs, I guess.
I don't think anyone's saying car dominance is the only factor, but it's a big one.
That's not the claim. The claim is “car culture -> less people walking -> ~~more crime~~ -> more fear -> less kids on the streets.” The perception matters; the reality doesn't.
I would argue much of Europe is pretty carbrained too. It just doesn't seem so comparatively.
But it is an interesting point. In those few areas like Amsterdam where pedestrians are quite safe, do people let kids play unattended? And if not why not? Is it due to worry about crime? Because my perception is that European cities are also quite safe from the perspective of violent crime.
I would personally have no concerns letting my kids play outside unattended if there weren't cars in the mix, so I find this mindset very strange. And my city has a lot more violence than most places in Europe, last I checked.
Not Dutch but Estonian here. I grew up playing outside, but I'm from a quiet street in a small town. In the cities, one of the actually positive influences of the soviet empire is that they built playgrounds between large apartment complexes so as far as I know, kids played outside unattended there too, but it would've likely been slightly older kids, not like a 5 year old being let out with his 8 year old friend (yes, talking about myself here).
Not sure how it is these days though. I see fewer kids running around on the street than when I was a kid. Suspect it has little to do with traffic or crime and more with the availability of entertainment via TV or phones. 25 years ago over here we had like 3 TV channels, for anything else you would've had to pay Viasat or someone - which a lot of families couldn't afford. Of course there are also just fewer kids in my hometown (at least on my street) and I have no comparison data for the bigger cities at the time of my childhood.