All true. I just personally try to bring up walkability/good urban design whenever I see the opportunity (which is super often, because as you imply, it’s an extremely wide-ranging issue touching most facets of our lives), and I tend to limit my comments (at least at first…I’ll into further depth, like you did, if someone else then prompts further discussion of the subject) to specifically the matter at hand. In this case, that was children’s independence.

Which ironically then leads into the children’s safety issue that @psivchaz@reddthat.com mentioned, because of how a lack of people walking around leads to a lack of “eyes on the street”, which adds to the feeling that children alone are unsafe and targets for kidnapping or whatever.