Last Sunday's column, How We Took the Child Out of Childhood, about two suburban parents trying to dial back the overprogrammed, oversupervised lockdown that is modern childhood drew a flood of impassioned e-mail messages. Here is a sampling.Alan Blasenstein Your ... column on the loss of freedom for suburban children brings up a sad trend that I noticed in my West Hartford, CT community years ago. Children don't ride their bikes anywhere anymore. I grew up on Long Island and began riding to friends houses at age 7. At 48 I am an avid cyclist and even commute to work by bicycle, but my 15-year old rarely uses his bike and is just counting the days until he can drive. The reasons you mention are all valid; I would also add that car traffic in most suburban communities is much greater than in my childhood and despite my advocacy of cycling, it is not as safe as it once was (although I don't worry about abductions). And new, outer-rim suburbs are usually designed primarily around the car and don't have the kind of small, through streets that are bicycle-friendly.I have some advice for you to pass on to Robin Winter in Chappaqua: She might want to check into a program called "Safe Routes to Schools" that started in California:Another thing she could do is to get in touch / involved with a bicycle advocacy group. I don't know if NY based Transportation Alternatives reaches out into the suburbs, but there may be another such group that does. I am involved with a new bike advocacy group in Central CT.