>However, later generations suffered from "helicopter parents" who won't let their kids out of their sight and arranged "playdates" and other organized activities for their kids, not allowing them to spontaneously choose for themselves.
I wonder how much of that is down to car culture. The amount of traffic I had to deal with as a child was tiny compared what my children faced.
> I wonder how much of that is down to car culture. The amount of traffic I had to deal with as a child was tiny compared what my children faced.
I don't see how this is related at all. Car culture was already firmly established 50-60 years ago, and I haven't noticed any significant changes in traffic. Of course the traffic level depends on exactly where you live. Anyway, the suburban area I live in now has no more traffic than the suburban areas I lived in as a child.
The US population grew by almost 100 million over 30 years, so anything that people do, such as drive cars, is going to increase along with an increase in the number of people.
The neighborhood in which I now live did not exist when I was a child: the area was prairie land at the time. So in that sense, there has been an increase in traffic. Nonetheless, the car traffic in my current neighborhood is no greater than the car traffic in my childhood neighborhoods. The children in this neighborhood are not beset by cars. And there were no children living here when it was an empty prairie, so things haven't gotten worse for them.
I wonder how much of that is down to car culture. The amount of traffic I had to deal with as a child was tiny compared what my children faced.