Holding on while letting go

There is a decision to be made and it's coming up quicker than I would like. I've known for years I would be faced with this but the natives are getting restless around here. At what age do I let my child ride his bike around the neighborhood to go to his friends? At what age can he meet his buddy at City Lake or the school down the street to play on the playground? Both are about 3 blocks from here. I have let foster kids walk to school - but at that time of day there were lots of kids on the street. And it's not that I think there is some magical age when he will be OK. It seems like every week a child is abducted - and many of those are teenagers. If we lived in a big city - this wouldn't even be a consideration, but we don't. We live in a town of about 7,000. We have been looking for a house in a nearby town where the population is 640. I just looked up the crime statistics for the last year they are available for our town - 2003.
Boonville Profile
Reports show that during 2003 property crime levels in the Boonville area were lower than Indiana's average. The same data shows violent crime levels to be lower than the Indiana average.

Law Enforcement Reported crimes in the Boonville area during 2003:
Murder and non-negligent man-slaughter: 0
Forcible rape: 0
Robbery: 0
Aggravated assault: 1
Violent crime events per 100,000 people: 14
Burglary: 18
Larceny-theft: 162
Motor vehicle theft: 13
Arson: 1

Well, I guess I live in a fairly safe little town after all. Maybe I will have to drill some safety skills into Jacob and let the string out a bit.