Skip to Content
Streetsblog San Francisco home
Streetsblog San Francisco home
Log In
Car Culture

What’s Really Dangerous for Kids? Hint: It Has Four Wheels and a Tailpipe

2822848009_98b4623864_m.jpgPhoto by pawpaw67 via Flickr.

When she wrote a column for the New York Sun last year about letting her nine-year-old ride the subway on his own, Lenore Skenazy was pilloried by many as an irresponsible mom. She stuck to her guns, though, and started a blog
dedicated to "sane parenting", advocating the idea that we are
over-sheltering our children from infinitesimal threats such as
stranger abduction. According to Skenazy, the kind of independence
represented by that subway trip is necessary and healthy for children
-- and their parents as well.

Now she's making the publicity rounds promoting her book, Free-Range Kids. In a recent interview with Salon,
she pointed out that  while many American parents are terrified to let
their children walk a few blocks or ride public transit, they think
nothing of driving them everywhere -- even though car crashes are the leading cause of death for children in the US:

Skenazy:If you don't want to have your child in any kind of danger, you reallycan't do anything. You certainly couldn't drive them in a car, becausethat's the No. 1 way kids die, as passengers in car accidents.

Salon: Rationally, why aren't cars the bogeyman instead of stranger abduction?

Skenazy:It would change our entire lifestyle if we couldn't drive our kids in acar, and it's a danger that we just willingly accept without examiningit too much, because we know that the chances are very slim that we'regoing to have a fatal car accident. But the chances are 40 timesslimmer that your kid walking to school, whether or not she's the onlyone, is going to be hurt by a stranger.

Skenazy's
answer gets to the heart of why it is so hard for people to accept the
many ways in which automobiles hurt everyone in society, perhaps
especially children -- through crashes, through polluting the air, through promoting obesity.
We can imagine a life in which our children are not allowed to play
outdoors, walk to a friend's house or spend any time unsupervised. But
we just can't imagine life without cars.

Or can we?

Stay in touch

Sign up for our free newsletter