i regularly cross a dangerous intersection and have to veep my head on a swivel because the only thing between me and a huge suv or truck is a curb

I was walking myself from an inner suburb to dowtnown of a mid sized town in the US, maybe 3 km or so. Except for the part of the highway bridge which was positively dangerous, it was a pleasant walk. Locals considered us as crazy lunatics and the only reason they probably did not send us to an asylum was because we were Europeans and they do that crazy stuff like walking all the time.

Of course. But its the exception, rather than the rule.

Much like I'm sure Europe has some cities where its extremely difficult to get around without a car.

This is completely crazy. Land of the free.

"Authorities said they would drop the charge against Patterson if she signs a safety plan that involves the use of a GPS tracker on her son's phone but Patterson told ABC News she is refusing to sign it.

"I just felt like I couldn't sign that and that in doing so, would be agreeing that there was something unsafe about my home or something unsafe about my parental decisions and I just don't believe that," Patterson said.

Patterson, who is currently out on bail, faces up to 1 year in jail with the reckless conduct charge."

America does not want children to exist, yet perpetually laments that children never go outside to play anymore.

and they lament that while not building playgrounds where young children can socialize and play, while destroying third spaces to hang out and socialize in for teenagers, and.. most egregious of all, when they finally do go outside, calling the cops on them for a variety of made up reasons regardless of their age. Especially if their tan is a shade too dark.

lol.

Some time ago I picked up my 10 year old niece from the train station. She first walked 3km to a bus stop, then went 15km with the bus to the train station, then 180km to where I picked her up and drove to my parents. Only reason I picked her up was because she didn't know what buses to use etc. After that, my mum showed her how the buses work and which ones to use etc so ever since that, she's been doing the trip completely own her own.

Old timers: Run? For fun?

*nearly die of laughter*

I was so salty when I lived 50m too close to the school and wasn't "allowed" to bicycle to the school haha. After a couple of years, I realized that nobody is going to punish me, or care, if I used a bicycle.

I took a bike to school from age 6 onward in the USA in the 90’s. It was pretty normal, too, lots of my peers would ride their bikes in from ages 6-13. It’s really weird how quickly this shifted in the USA, IMO.

Yeah I like to "troll" some of the car-centric people by saying that a bicycle/walking is the ultimate freedom. You don't need a license for it, you aren't relying on fuel stations, you can bicycle on the road, on the sidewalk, in the forest, on the lake shore, mountains... With a car your freedom is limited.