I also can't give the parent's perspective, but I have also been very fortunate in the amount of freedom given to me by my parents. Basically, instead of laying down rules and punishing me and my brother, they explained exactly why such-and-such was dangerous. They made sure that we understood where they were coming from in their disagreement with my decisions, but ultimately it was my choice. They told me whether or not they approved, but then they left it to my conscience to make the right choice. This turned out to be pretty effective, and I actually made it all the way through teenagerhood without ever fighting with my parents or even my brother for that matter. That said, we did banter at the dinner table a fair bit, which honed the skills required to survive being a girl in engineering.

As to the question of what is too strict... one of my best friends in high school had what I would call "too strict" parents. Until she was 16, she was not allowed to get in a car with a teenage driver, and in a very rural location where the only means of public transportation was hitchhiking (also not allowed in her house), that was essentially banning her from seeing her friends outside of school. She was also not allowed to walk to the lake on her own, which was about ten minutes from her house. There were many other rules, but those are just some of the extreme examples. In any case, her relationship with her parents is definitely not good, and she actually ended up moving out to live with her grandparents during grade 12.

Basically, I think what it comes down to is parents need to understand their children, know who their friends are, and recognize what is truly risky and what is not. Perhaps not allowing someone to walk down the road is reasonable in a sketchy neighbourhood of a city, but in a place where people leave the keys in the ignition when they go to the store I don't think it's really a concern.