Safe Routes to Soccer
I have a pet theory that roughly 20% of the increase in vehicle miles traveled in the U.S. over the past few decades can be traced to organized youth soccer.
This post, from a blog called freerangekids, adds some evidence:
My 10-year-old son wanted the chance to walk from our house to soccer practice behind an elementary school about 1/3 mile from our house. He had walked in our neighborhood a number of times with the family and we have driven the route to practice who knows how many times. It was broad daylight - 5:00 pm. I had to be at the field myself 15 minutes after practice started, so I gave him my cell phone and told him I would be there to check that he made it and sent him off. He got 3 blocks and a police car intercepted him. The police came to my house — after I had left — and spoke with my younger children (who were home with Grandma). They then found me at the soccer field and proceeded to tell me how I could be charged with child endangerment. They said they had gotten “hundreds” of calls to 911 about him walking. Now, I know bad things can happen and I wasn’t flippant about letting him go and not checking up, but come on. I live in a small town in Mississippi. To be perfectly honest, I’m much more concerned about letting him attend a birthday party sleepover next Friday, but I’m guessing the police wouldn’t be at my house if I chose to let him go (which I probably won’t).
As someone who walked to school every day, rode a bike unhelmeted all over the ‘burbs, etc., this makes me feel like an grouchy old-timer.
(Horn honk to boingboing)
![[del.icio.us]](http://www.howwedrive.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/delicious.png)
![[Digg]](http://www.howwedrive.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/digg.png)
![[Facebook]](http://www.howwedrive.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/facebook.png)
![[Google]](http://www.howwedrive.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/google.png)
![[MySpace]](http://www.howwedrive.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/myspace.png)
![[Slashdot]](http://www.howwedrive.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/slashdot.png)
![[StumbleUpon]](http://www.howwedrive.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/stumbleupon.png)
![[Yahoo!]](http://www.howwedrive.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/yahoo.png)
This entry was posted on Friday, March 20th, 2009 at 9:46 am and is filed under Pedestrians. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
| 
March 20th, 2009 at 10:50 am
Only 20% ?
That and the annoying fetish for mo’ bigger cupholders.
March 20th, 2009 at 12:14 pm
Wow…
That seems rediculous,
It brings up the whole thing about percieved risk though.
People see a child walking on their own and assume that they are lost/going to get abducted/hit by a car etc.
It doesnt say much for the police though, I mean it really seems as though there should have been one question “Where are you walking to son”
I’m only 25 but if I got shoved in a cop car and taken home every time I was walking around my suburban area on my own as a kid, I would probably be living in a foster home because my parents were so “negligent”
Im wondering if there will ever be a return to sanity.
March 23rd, 2009 at 8:50 pm
So I’m a grouchy old-timer, too. Researching my book I learned (as I could have guessed) that the majority of us parents walked to school as kids. What percentage of kids walk to school today? Ten percent. Part of the problem is super spread-out suburbs, another part is the lack of sidewalks, but another part is parents too afraid to let their kids leave home without a security detail. To be a “good” parent these days is to be a paranoid one.
Anyway, my other favorite safety/kids/traffic factoid is that of all the kids injured by cars near their schools, HALF are injured by cars dropping off OTHER kids. So if MORE kids walked to school, FEWER would be injured.
Chew on that!
And meantime, kudos for the really cool blog and congrats on the book. Hope some of your karma (carma?) rubs off on me!
Lenore Skenazy
author, “Free-Range Kids: Giving Our Children the Freedom We Had Without Going Nuts With Worry,” due out next month!!!
freerangekids.com