Neighbourhood design is one (minor IMHO) component but society and attitudes play a bigger role. When I was a kid in England in the 1980s it was common to be out on your bike all day, to walk to school, to head into the woods, etc. I continue to live in a quaint, safe, rural town and the amount of kids I see out and about is tiny. This is not down to changes in neighbourhood design.
Kids do continue to walk to school (but this has supposedly dropped from 90% in the 70s to 10% now for elementary school pupils [1]). Other statistics [2] note that TV watching is up 12% in just the past 5 years and time 'in front of a screen' is up 40% in a decade. A poll commissioned by the Children's Society shows that half of adults believe the earliest a child should be allowed out unsupervised nowadays is 14(!) - it was incredibly common for children to be playing on the streets from 7 or 8 in the 80s.
I guess all I'm saying is that even if you give Americans (or Brits) cosy neighbourhoods with everything hooked up just right, there's a bigger and more important problem to be dealt with to get kids out and to get parents to let them out.
You're right, it's not neighborhood design, it's happening all over the western world. The question is why? My take is that it's an out of control spiral, where more kids stay inside to play video games and watch TV, so fewer kids are on the street, so parents become more concerned about kids being on the street, so they don't let their kids out as much, so the kids do more indoor activities etc.
I was born in '86 and I and everybody I knew were basically free roaming kids. I remember being about 5 and taking my bike and ride a kilometer or two away from home, just exploring by myself. That would get my parents arrested today. By the time I started playing video games I was already independent, so it didn't affect me. Got my own keys to the house at 8, came and went as I pleased as long as I call home to say if I'd be home for dinner or not.
I wish I could let my kids out when I have them, but I'm afraid that either they won't want to, or I'll be arrested for not supervising them every minute they're outside. And really, what fun would it be running around outside today? It's completely desolate, void of other children to play with.
.. or I'll be arrested for not supervising them every minute they're outside.
See, I think a lot of parents share concerns like this (I have two myself but they're not quite at the right age) yet I don't think the actual laws have changed (?) so I wonder how fair it is.
I think a key part of the problem, if it's one, is that it's so easy to keep children entertained in the house nowadays and it's therefore easier to do that than let them "risk" being outdoors.
As a geek, if I hadn't had lots of friends, I could have easily stayed in the house playing on my computer all day in the 90s, but most of my friends didn't have such pursuits so had to go outside to alleviate their boredom. And.. all kids have become geeks now (in a sense we may have understood it in the early/mid 90s). Even the popular kid can stay glued to their cellphone or computer on Facebook or playing games for hours every evening without it seeming odd in 2013.
And if they can do that and stay safe in their own homes.. it must be tempting to many parents to let them do that.
I live on a cul-de-sac and it's wonderful for my children. They play outside all the time. There have been various families of our age come and go on our street. We hardly know them because no one comes out of their homes. It's very lonely at times, and yet, we live so close together.
>When I was a kid in England in the 1980s it was common to be out on your bike all day, to walk to school, to head into the woods, etc.
When I was a kid in the USA in the 1980's it was this way too. I'd be interested to hear your perspective on this since I've attributed the playing indoors thing to the kidnapper/molester panic that ramped up in the 80's.
Kids do continue to walk to school (but this has supposedly dropped from 90% in the 70s to 10% now for elementary school pupils [1]). Other statistics [2] note that TV watching is up 12% in just the past 5 years and time 'in front of a screen' is up 40% in a decade. A poll commissioned by the Children's Society shows that half of adults believe the earliest a child should be allowed out unsupervised nowadays is 14(!) - it was incredibly common for children to be playing on the streets from 7 or 8 in the 80s.
I guess all I'm saying is that even if you give Americans (or Brits) cosy neighbourhoods with everything hooked up just right, there's a bigger and more important problem to be dealt with to get kids out and to get parents to let them out.
[1] http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/mother-tongue/8623152/Child...
[2] http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/servlet/file/store5/item8233...