No, I have not seen them.
What you describe sounds very expensive.

I was a 'teen. I could do anything, so I thought. The school was located in a downtown area amidst all the crazy traffic that implies. Thinking back, I should have been scared to death -- but, as I said, I was a 'Teen.

That's because you had reasonable-sized books ;) Have you seen the monstrosities kids today lug around? They're full color printed on 24-LB compressed paper with hard covers and a one-inch thick book weighs like 10 lbs!

The court system is also a culprit. Who finds themselves convicted of child abuse and as a sexual predator is becoming more and more procedurally shocking

My kids grew up in the city - Chicago - albeit in one of the safest neighborhoods in it, a place they call The Village in the City because it's so much like an old-fashioned town. But city still and close to some rough neighborhoods. They played outside themselves all the time, wandering around on their bikes pretty far. This was in the 80's and 90's. So city life isn't necessarily that scary and dangerous. They were friends with all kinds of people and it added to their strong sense of individualism as well as self-reliance and resourcefulness.

Exactly! And that's what so many kids are missing out on now. Skenazy had a newspaper great article from 1905 that celebrated the fact a 13 and 5 year old had traveled from the midwest to DC all by themselves to meet the president - then they traveled from the midwest to San Francisco themselves!

Can you imagine what would happen today?

Like the radio touch! Seems like a harbinger!

a bully pushed me down a rocky hillside in
elementary school and broke my collarbone --
the only bone I ever broke until the 4 since
I got retarded!!! -- j

p.s. I like your trike! . I have an 07 ultra classic.
.

fun to steer, huh?! -- j
.

I rode a city bus (old GM detroit-diesel-powered thing)
from 7th grade through 9th, about 12 miles from home
to the old school. . walked almost a half mile to the
bus stop. . always uphill in heavy snow, from
age 12 to age 14.5 . . . carrying the hollowed-out
book which held the transistor radio! -- j
.

I loaned mine out to a university student while I was
on active duty, and unlike hundreds of other things
which never came back, it actually did. . surprised
me to the dickens when I got the call that I could
come and pick it up. . still has the dymo label on it
showing the date when I bought it with lawn-mowing
money. . amazing things happen in this life!!! -- j
.

I was at more risk from the school bullies than I ever was from local sex predators.

I had a big newspaper basket in front. 2/3 of the case fit in it and I only had to worry about it falling out on sharp turns.

I'm 49, and recall walking/biking every day ~1/2 mile.

When I was 16, I was dropped at my buddy's house, but his family had left for the weekend. I figured it out after a while. It was ~11:30pm, I had $10, and called to see how much a cab was...$10. No way! So I walked home ~20 miles, and arrived home at 4 am. My parents knew I was responsible and didn't even raise an eyebrow.

When my children were little, I lived ~300 yards from the elementary school (ok, maybe 450 yds along the road) They were not allowed to walk or ride their bikes. They had to take the bus. The worst part was, for a while, the bus picked up going away from the school, and my kids spent 40 minutes on it to go 300 yds! The limits to society's risk aversion have no bound!

Still have mine also. So we have a "twin-
schwinn (try saying THAT 3 times fast!!!)
situation. My schwinn rests in the basement
with all the other goodies of yester-year...

did the trombone go on the back end of the bike,
I hope?! -- j
.

oh, yes -- the rubber band on the pants leg. . but,
regardless, I still got chain oil on my pants which
would Not Come Off. -- j
.

hey, I still have my schwinn -- needs a little tlc -- and
it weighs about 100 lbs. more than the bikes of today! -- j
.

In high school I took the city bus to Newark NJ (about 30 min ride). Not long after I was taking the train and subway to New York City on my own. No big deal really

I wanted to be more free range and found out that if I showed responsibility my parents let me do more and more. That's how I got street smarts to take care of myself

In Las Vegas there are a lot of 15 mph school zones. Unintended consequence is that the high school students just dart out in traffic with no regard for cars. They don't learn personal responsibility when they are young as a result. Pedestrians need to have respect for 3000 lb moving objects and take responsibility for where they put their bodies- the earlier the better

Still a lot of rebelliousness around: http://wtop.com/montgomery-county/2015/0...

What a great present!

Unfortunately, there is now a strange bias of fear about children in the culture. I think of it as the Precautionary Principle gone crazy and I'm not sure of all it's sources. One, however, seems to have been this fear of child molestation and abduction which started up in the early '80's. The blogger mentions the actual facts "Statistically, the boy would have a greater chance of being struck by lightning than being abducted. But the fear is that child molesters wait behind trees and mailboxes all day to pounce upon wayward children."

I remember thinking "If that many kids were abducted by strangers, I should know a family that was affected." Then I discovered that most of the abducted kids were abducted by a divorced/estranged parent in a custody battle. And that's how that meme got embedded in the culture.

Fortunately, there's some backlash against this - see Lenore Skenazy's blog "Free Range Kids." She got in trouble for letting her 9 year old ride of the NYC subway himself.

Ahhh!! How I miss my beautiful, trusty Schwinn!!!