Not Just Bikes
7 HN recommenders · recommended in 14 months, 2022–2026
12:14 · 5.2M views · Jun 6, 2022
Not Just Bikes argues that car-dependent suburbs rob children of independence, contrasting North American suburbia with Dutch cities where kids walk and bike on their own. It is the creator's remake of an earlier video on the topic.
The standard link in threads about child autonomy, helicopter parenting and car-centric planning.
19 comments from Hacker News
Well, part of the problem is our infrastructure choices over the past many decades. When you build suburbs that are very isolated from places you need to go and then need to drive to literally everything you do, nearly everyone starts viewing normal activities like walking to a grocery store as abnormal. As a result, kids can’t actually go anywhere until they turn 16 and get a car. :/ There are a lot of excellent videos about this sad problem, like this: this video But at the end of the day, when it’s not actually possible to be independent every day, you just loose this culture. And countries that made different infrastructure and development decisions 6 decades ago are in a much better place today — it doesn’t have to be this way.
Once the environment is safe for kids you don't have to do as many logistics for your children. You might be interested in this "Not Just Bikes" video about raising kids in non car dependent places: this video or this one about kids who bike to school in a group for safety: [LINK]
The issue isn't purely house vs apartment. It's a symptom of our neighborhood design. Not Just Bikes has a really good video on why suburbia (usually single family housing) is often worse for children than denser environments. this video
There's a great video by the urbanist youtuber Not Just Bikes about this very topic - he ended up moving to the Netherlands so his kids can safely play on the street and independently meet up with friends: this video
Yet again this video on how there is something deeply, horrifyingly wrong with raising kids in American suburbs is apt. this video Visited Utrecht in December and visiting Freiburg in April to decide where to live.