Cars are Dangerous

Some people blanch when I tell them Jada and Aaron walked to and from school by themselves when they were 9 and 7.  My suburban friends in particular often asked me if I was scared for them, perhaps out of a heightened sense of the city being big and bad.  Without being too snarky, I would point out that from a safety standpoint, it was far less dangerous to walk a well-trafficked two blocks to school than to drive to school; or, even worse, to walk or bike to school at the same time that others are frantically racing their two-ton steel boxes to the same drop-off spot.  

Fast-forward to the present.  This fall, Jada and Aaron will be both be taking public transportation to school.  I'm sure I will hear from my suburban friends about how treacherous this is.  To be sure, riding the subway is not without its perils.  Jada has had to learn how to carry herself, especially at night or otherwise when the city's more unsavory characters are in the stations and cars.  Violence, assaults, and accidents do happen, and they are scary.

But cars are dangerous too, and more so.  Thankfully, driving is getting safer.  But sitting in a very heavy object that is moving at a very high speed remains a fraught activity, and I don't think people who do this everyday - who, if they need to go anywhere, basically have to do this because they have no other options - realize just how fraught it is.

I can definitely say that when I was Jada's age, I was already driving.  And I was not a good driver.  My reflexes stunk, my motor skills were not commensurate with the complexity of the task at hand, and I dozed off too many times to admit.  I will acknowledge a little pang of anxiety when I know she will be out late on public transit.  But if she had to drive everywhere I'm pretty sure I would never get any sleep.

To each his own, so if you are a suburbanite, I have no beef with you.  But do know that part of the package is having to drive everywhere, having to drive your kids everywhere, and having your kids drive everywhere.  And that to me is scarier than having them walk and ride transit everywhere.