The Wrong Side of my Car

The blog that wants to go obsolete

25 May 2022

Children in the city

Previously we talked about walking to the park, and in these discussions a lot of people do not understand the point, because they take for granted the current lifestyle we foist onto children.

We need to talk. About how we ask children to live their lives in our city.

Around March 2020, COVID-19 arrived in earnest in many countries. A strange thing happened to time. It seemed to have stopped, frozen in place, and yet ephemeral, months flying by without anyone noticing. Those were interesting times. And not just for learning epidemics 101.

For one thing, the endless roar of street traffic calmed down, and people started noticing how the trees were making these squeaky high pitched noises, how odd. Turns out it comes from these small flying creatures, what was that again? Birds? City people, eh?

The Lockdown experience

Another novelty was this new experience called a ‘lockdown’. You had to stay at home. Only some essential trips. Many people did not like it very much. Getting your freedom curtailed like that. And OK it was not literally a lockdown, you could still go out, but don’t you stray too far from home. And be home before dark. That sort of thing. Eh, no. We didn’t like it at all.

And what if I came to you and said, hey this is great, so if this covid thing is ever done with us *1 let’s keep this experience. You shall not go out of your house nilly willy. But hey, since I’m in a good mood, we will make some concessions. You can occasionally go out, to the park or somewhere else you like. But, not by yourself. No, only if your chaperone is there to hold your hand.

Think about it for a minute. Say, we do this for the next 10 years or so. What do you say?

What about dude what the hell is wrong with you can you kindly piss off I have a life thank you very much.

And you probably should. You being an autonomous human with its own desires and wishes, and who can think for themselves.

And yet. Did you get a déjà vu? This entire nonsense with semi-permanent house-arrest, and someone holding your hand, it is so… familiar. Where have we seen that before?

This is how we expect our children to live. Some kids still have a modicum of freedom. Others do not leave the house unless they are strapped in the back of a vehicle. Do you know who else doesn’t leave their home unless strapped in the back of a vehicle? Prison inmates.

Like, what the hell is wrong with us?

I have to break it to you, kids aren’t some kind of halfway, or almost human beings. No they are full, sentient human beings, capable of their own thought, and figuring out on their own where they want to go today, and how to get back home.

Why.

It comes back to those cars. They’re not just noisy. They’re also heavy. If you get under one you’re nothing but a sack of meat and bones. Driving cars through populated areas is dangerous, this is a fact and no amount of hand wringing about obeying traffic rules and personal responsibility is going to change that.

And yet, you keep hearing about some imbecile caught tapping on their phone while driving. Someone so disinterested in whether or not he is about to crush a human a metre in front of him, that he can’t even be bothered to keep looking though his windshield.

Except — I wish it were just those imbeciles. Nooo. It’s normal upstanding citizens like you and me. Totally normal. And the traffic rules, meh, you are not officially supposed to do it, and if you get caught you are supposed to get a slap with a wet bus ticket. Yeah whatever.

Some people aren’t even willing to slow down for those few 100 metres on smaller streets when they are between their nearest arterial and their home. It costs almost no time, yet it would make those smaller streets a lot safer and quieter.

Or even those lousy last few metres. You know, slow down when turning into your driveway when you are crossing the footpath so you don’t drive over pedestrians. But no, even that is too much, and some people even go as far as beeping if someone else slows down. Why can’t they watch out for cars?

This juxtaposition is quite remarkable. In almost every other domain in life, if you do something dangerous, you have to look out so you don’t hurt anyone. Be careful with that weed eater. Make sure you don’t hit anything with that forklift. Don’t point that high pressure washer to people. Don’t fire that gun until you know there is nobody downrange.

But not in a car. We want to drive through our city, unimpeded, and expect other people to look out for us.

And this is why we ask parents to more or less lock down their children. Because, hey, otherwise we have to ask car drivers to drive carefully.

We really ought to have a conversation, and ask questions like How did it become this way, and Why is this normal. And Is this actually a good way to organise cities?


(*1) 

COVID-19 is far from done with us. As I am writing this, I got an e-mail from Auckland Transport that bus services are going on a reduced schedule because so many bus drivers are falling ill. Schools have to go back to bare-bones day care duty for lack of teachers who aren’t ill at home. You get the picture. We’re in for another round any time now.

On the other hand I don’t expect the kind of restrictions we had under Alert Level 3 or 4 to come back. You feeling nostalgic yet?

✽ 

And before anyone asks, this sucks for adults too. You might get used to having to run for your life when just crossing the street to go to your local dairy, or to jumping out of the way of another idiot cutting you up when turning into his driveway, but it gets old very fast.

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