Originally Posted by
gear64
It sounds like this is suburbia, and maybe this gets mentioned further down, but the asinine developers of urban sprawl areas are killing kids playing outside as much or more than anything mentioned so far. You can hardly get from one subdivision to another or to a park with out getting on a major thoroughfare. Then because that major thoroughfare is the only way to get from A to B it's overcrowded with frustrated motorists before cyclists and pedestrians even enter the picture.
I developed my love of cycling in an urban residential matrix. Mostly low volume roads because there were almost infinite ways to get from A to B. Even as I got older and started venturing to older inner suburbs you could still find plenty of calm roads. A big reason why I've always lived near an urban core.
I can't speak for suburbia everywhere, but around here you can get around in suburbia just fine as a kid.
For the mid to upper scale neighborhoods, there are bike paths and green spaces aplenty. For the lower scale neighborhoods, there are streets, sidewalks in many cases, utility right of ways, and the land next to county maintained bayous and creeks.
When I was a kid growing up in suburbia we rode our bikes on the streets, sidewalks, and the upper banks of the local bayou. But that was the 1970s and smart phones and electronic social connectivity as we know it didn't exist back then.
Edit to add: I remember when I bought my first house in another part of suburbia in the early 1990s. A county maintained creek meandered nearby that passed through several neighborhoods. Also, there was an abandoned sand quarry behind my neighborhood.
In the past 15 or so years massive flood retention/detention areas have been added throughout the region which creates acres and acres of county maintained space for riding.
Granted, all this favors a mountain bike or trail bike, but if kids in suburbia want to ride, they just need to go outside.