# How Far is Too Far for a Kid to Walk Alone? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 3, 2025, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-far-is-too-far-for-a-kid-to-walk-alone/1020424 "2025-07-03T02:25:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2025, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-far-is-too-far-for-a-kid-to-walk-alone/1020424/61 "2025-07-11T16:03:18Z")
Damned kids! Walking the wrong way on a one-way street. How dare they! Soon enough they’ll be congregating on my lawn. Noxious beggars! 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2025, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-far-is-too-far-for-a-kid-to-walk-alone/1020424/62 "2025-07-11T16:09:30Z")
> [@OldOlds](#): > > This is why today’s 25 year olds still live at home I thought it was because cities don’t have SROs anymore. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2025, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-far-is-too-far-for-a-kid-to-walk-alone/1020424/63 "2025-07-11T16:19:04Z")
SRO?  ---
**Author:** ![doreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/858c86/32.png) [@doreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doreen)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2025, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-far-is-too-far-for-a-kid-to-walk-alone/1020424/64 "2025-07-11T16:25:44Z")
Single room occupancy - it was a type of housing where people rented a room and shared a bathroom and kitchen with others. It wasn’t like having roommates - it was more like a certain old-fashioned type of small hotel, where each person had a room that locked and everyone shared the one bathroom on each floor. ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2025, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-far-is-too-far-for-a-kid-to-walk-alone/1020424/65 "2025-07-11T16:28:02Z")
I tend to associate that with flop houses. ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2025, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-far-is-too-far-for-a-kid-to-walk-alone/1020424/66 "2025-07-11T23:59:12Z")
Rooms to let, 50 cents No phone, no pool, no pets (BTW, originally a flop-house would have been barracks/dormitory, not SRO) ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2025, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-far-is-too-far-for-a-kid-to-walk-alone/1020424/67 "2025-07-12T00:02:48Z")
Eight hours of pushin’ broom buys an 8 x 12 four-bed room. More like one bed in an 8’x12’ room with three other dudes and beds, but that would really fuck up the meter of the song. ---
**Author:** ![P-man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/p-man/32/3606_2.png) [@P-man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/P-man)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2025, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-far-is-too-far-for-a-kid-to-walk-alone/1020424/68 "2025-07-12T01:35:36Z")
I always thought it was “four bit”. ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2025, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-far-is-too-far-for-a-kid-to-walk-alone/1020424/69 "2025-07-12T02:48:59Z")
You are correct. It’s four-bit, which, according to the internet, used to be slang for .50 cents. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2025, 10:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-far-is-too-far-for-a-kid-to-walk-alone/1020424/70 "2025-07-12T10:51:39Z")
My way’s more sordid, but you now remind me that I learned a few years ago that it was “4-bit” and I’d had it wrong since childhood. Guess where I got edumacated? Right here of course. D’oh! Seems like it didn’t stick real well though. Double D’oh & a 🤦‍♂️! ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2025, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-far-is-too-far-for-a-kid-to-walk-alone/1020424/71 "2025-07-13T03:40:23Z")
Cut and Paste. Anyway, while talking about Country & Western songs, how about this one: > **How Far is Too Far for a Kid to Walk Alone?** ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2025, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-far-is-too-far-for-a-kid-to-walk-alone/1020424/72 "2025-08-06T23:12:36Z")
10 minute walk that included street crossing. Kid killed (May 27). Parents accept felony conviction to get out of jail (that was quick). [https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/06/opinion/children-traffic-death-parents.html](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/06/opinion/children-traffic-death-parents.html) Paywalled, but the headline is widely copied: “They Let Their Children Cross the Street, and Now They’re Felons” The author is ignorant on the issue of “now streets are dangerous”. There may have been a sweet spot in the suburbs, but the introduction of cars into cities coincided with the end of street play, because so many kids were killed. ---
**Author:** ![doreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/858c86/32.png) [@doreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doreen)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2025, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-far-is-too-far-for-a-kid-to-walk-alone/1020424/73 "2025-08-07T00:18:22Z")
[This](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/06/opinion/children-traffic-death-parents.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare) should be a gift link . But what exactly do you mean by “the end of street play”? If you are talking about kids playing in the actual street, I’ve never seen that except in dead end streets, not even when I was a kid, 50 plus years ago. If you mean kids playing on sidewalks and traveling to the park with their friends, I still see that. But of course it depends on the street — I don’t see kids playing on the sidewalk abutting a street with four lanes in each direction , but most of the streets in residential areas have either one or two lanes total and you see kids playing or traveling on those all the time. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2025, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-far-is-too-far-for-a-kid-to-walk-alone/1020424/74 "2025-08-07T00:25:28Z")
> [@Melbourne](#): > > 10 minute walk that included street crossing. Kid killed (May 27). Parents accept felony conviction to get out of jail (that was quick). A miscarriage of justice, IMHO- if they were white and rich, that would not have happened. > [@doreen](#): > > [This](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/06/opinion/children-traffic-death-parents.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare) should be a gift link . Not for me, but thanks for trying. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2025, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-far-is-too-far-for-a-kid-to-walk-alone/1020424/75 "2025-08-07T00:29:05Z")
> [@doreen](#): > > But what exactly do you mean by “the end of street play”? If you are talking about kids playing in the actual street, I’ve never seen that except in dead end streets, not even when I was a kid, 50 plus years ago. They still do it on the street I grew up on. Then again, that’s a one-block-long street, connecting a side street to an absolute-nothing street. Nobody would drive down it unless they’re going to or from one of the houses on the street, and it wasn’t physically possible to go all that fast. ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2025, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-far-is-too-far-for-a-kid-to-walk-alone/1020424/76 "2025-08-07T00:41:24Z")
> [@doreen](#): > > , I’ve never seen that except in dead end streets, not even when I was a kid, 50 plus years ago I’m not an expert, but I’ve read the textbooks and seen the photo’s 🙂 . The city streets were a public area, where people walked and kids played, until the introduction of cars 100 years ago. [Newspaper City: Toronto’s Street Surfaces and the Liberal Press, 1860-1935 on JSTOR](https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.3138/j.ctv1n35bft) ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2025, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-far-is-too-far-for-a-kid-to-walk-alone/1020424/77 "2025-08-07T01:30:50Z")
> [@doreen](#): > > If you are talking about kids playing in the actual street, I’ve never seen that except in dead end streets, not even when I was a kid, 50 plus years ago. When I was a kid we played in the street occasionally. Not a dead-end street, but it was only one block long, so not much traffic, and we lived in the middle of the block, so plenty of time to get out of the way if a car was coming. ---
**Author:** ![sunacres](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4491bb/32.png) [@sunacres](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sunacres)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2025, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-far-is-too-far-for-a-kid-to-walk-alone/1020424/78 "2025-08-07T01:47:13Z")
We played in the street all the time! How else were we going to play base runner? Not a side street either, just a regular residential street on the grid. Sometimes cars would honk at us if we didn’t step aside promptly enough for them, so we called “horn works, now try your lights.” When my family moved to a house on a four lane street with parking on both sides, we still played pitcher-batter against the front porch. Line drives across the street did sometimes annoy or even hit cars, which I concede is problematic. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2025, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-far-is-too-far-for-a-kid-to-walk-alone/1020424/79 "2025-08-07T01:55:34Z")
> [@Melbourne](#): > > The author is ignorant on the issue of “now streets are dangerous”. I read this article earlier today and the author heavily emphasizes that now streets are dangerous, calling out in particular the culture that has allowed automobiles to encroach on pedestrian spaces. The author also points out the way urban design is set up to cause accidents with pedestrians, and specifically describes how dangerous that intersection is because of its design - not only that, but the author went to great lengths to try to get the police department to review their analysis of how unsafe the streets were. The article concludes that people shouldn’t have to watch over their kids 24/7 and that unsafe streets are a lot of the problem. (They also cite pedestrian traffic deaths, which have indeed skyrocketed. This is partly caused by the design of streets and also by the design of automobiles. I’ve read other articles about how large SUVs are linked to pedestrian deaths because they make it damned near impossible to see what’s directly in front of them.) ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2025, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-far-is-too-far-for-a-kid-to-walk-alone/1020424/80 "2025-08-07T02:25:06Z")
Right. What I was particularly noticing was that the author missed that “streets were less dangerous then” followed the period of “streets were more dangerous then” – an ignorance of the history of street danger and the context of the whole streets-vs-children planning issue. Another aspect of the issue comes up repeatedly in the whole “public protest” area. Public occupation of the street is only wrong if the street is _defined_ as a place only for cars. Taking the older definition of the street as a public place, street protests are just another public use – no less privileged than car traffic. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-far-is-too-far-for-a-kid-to-walk-alone/1020424.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-far-is-too-far-for-a-kid-to-walk-alone/1020424.md?page=5)