Dad to a five-year-old here. I think our kids are growing up substantially more shielded, and I think it's a bad thing. Still, as this article outlines, it isn't something we can simply decide to change (in many or most cases). We live in what I would describe as a relatively affluent suburb of Boston with an attentive local government and a lot of resident participation. Yet what the article describes as an environment seemingly designed to be treacherous for kids feels very familiar to me.

I'm a staunch urbanist and I believe that many of these problems can be traced back to zoning and urban design shifts over time. I grew up on a 25 mph cul-de-sac in the '80s when maybe a couple of people in the neighborhood drove what today would be considered "small" trucks for work.

Today, our entire town is signed 35 mph, and almost everyone disobeys it (because the roads are too wide, have generous shoulders, have curb-tight sidewalks if any, have long and straight sections, etc.), and the Ford F-150 is the most-sold vehicle in the country. The rise of the SUV over the last ten years has decimated the safety of our towns; there are so many Tahoes, Expeditions, and Escalades with ridiculously high hoods and poor visibility speeding around, I would be insane to let my young kid play by himself out there at this age.