Using public transport as a child

We lived in the country, probably went on the bus on my own when secondary school age, but with friends also. No occasion to use trains or anything.

Cycled alone to the swimming pool, two miles away, across the local golf links in the evenings after school and weekends. This was from age 10/11. Looking back, amazed my fussy, over anxious mum allowed me to do this, but the thought of paedophiles lurking in the bushes seemed alien back then, the early 60’s.

We walked to primary school, alone.

When I started at the grammar school at 11 I went by bus, it was just assumed that I would, no fuss.

I do remember that as a child I was fascinated by the "Spitting is prohibited" metal signs inside the buses, I couldn't understand how anyone could be so gross.....

Aged 9 I was taking my younger brother and sister on the bus from our home in the countryside to Primary School and home again
We had moved from a village where I had been in charge of them on our short walk to the local school, so I think my Mum thought I could manage , which worked ok till one day my brother didn’t turn up at the meeting spot , I put sister on the bus and went to the corner to look for him , the bus went off without me , he had been hiding and sneaked onto the bus , I was left !
I can’t remember how I got home ,

I lived in Manchester. At age 10, I would get the bus after leaving primary school and go in to Manchester city centre, to meet my grandmother. Age 11 I started at grammar school. This entailed a journey of three buses there, and three buses back. One of which included crossing one of the busiest roads in the city. Never thought anything about it. I did, however meet a flasher on the way home one day and just totally ignored him because that was what my grandmother had told me to do if anything like that ever happened. I now live near primary School. I have lived here for 20 years. When I first came here, I hardly saw any parked cars delivering children to school. My house is now surrounded(I live on a corner) twice a day, rain or shine by five cars and the rest of the road is chockablock. I live in a very quiet small town. Times have certainly changed unfortunately not for the better.

biglouis - how strange to read your post!

I grew up in Liverpool and it was only a few days ago, I was telling my son that I would travel into the city centre by bus to meet my Dad from work, it was my weekly treat! He worked in Water St!
I would have been 10/11.
Initially he would meet me at the bus stop but after a few times, I was quite happy to go to his office alone.

I'd also visit my Aunt who worked in a local department store...with a well known statue outside.
I felt SO grown up.

I lived in a country area but not rural on a new housing development.

I walked to primary school with other children from the age of about 8 ... a mile each way. ... and let myself into an empty house when I got home. Parents both worked as we had no money, and I'd be alone in the house for a couple of hours.

At that age I was also allowed to go on my roller skates to the nearest parade of shops approximately half a mile away.

From the age of 5 I played out on the village green with other children.

I went on buses alone from the age of 8 into the nearest small country town.

I played in the local woods picking wild flowers with other children and climbing small trees - boys and girls - from the age of about 8.

I cycled about 3 miles each way on main roads to the lido aged probably 12. Had no cycle training but used common sense.

I caught the bus to the grammar school at the age of 11, and then had about 3/4 mile walk from the bus station.

Looking back I am amazed I was allowed to do much of this. I was more careful with my own children when I became a parent.

I can understand kids who live rural (little public transport or narrow dangerous roads) needing to be dropped off. I was just reading about a boy of 13 who had never travelled alone without an adult. He preferred to wait in the after school club for his 15 year old sister to finish an activity so he could travel home with her. Ill bet a 15 year old is soooo pleased having to baby her 13 YO brother.

I walked to and from school, but got the bus to come home at lunchtime and get back in time. My mum used to pick me up and walk with me until I was seven and she had my brother. By that time, my sister was five, and had started school. I was responsible for seeing that she also got on the bus (a public bus, not a school one) and got home safely. I can't imagine a 7 year old being allowed/expected to do that nowadays.

The conductor was always the same man, who must have had a regular shift on the route that went from the school past our house. He was a kindly soul, and used to sell the children who got on (we weren't the only ones) tickets to Fairyland - they were 2d, if I remember correctly. I was capable of getting off at the right stop, but I'm sure that he would have reminded us if we forgot.

I used to walk to school on my own aged 5 . It was a couple of kms away. I caught buses by myself from about 9. That was London but things were safer then. Not many people had cars. My kids used to walk up to school here in Australia at about 6 years old and catch buses and trains from about 11 or 12. No one thought of abductions etc but I remember being on a London bus in Forest Hill with a girlfriend at about 12 years old and this old bloke exposed himself to us. We burst out laughing and he got off at the next stop.

Where we lived is the outskirts of Liverpool it was farm land then. We spent days on end out of the house school holidays and weekends. Our dad worked shifts in the car factory so my mum packed us off with jam butties and dilute orange. We spent most of our days foraging all manner of things. We could have easily got into danger playing on building sites too.
We had to walk nearly two miles to our secondary school. I didn’t use buses much I was often travel sick. When I was 14 I got a Saturday job earning a pittance. It wasn’t much but I could afford the fare to go into town or visit our gran.

aged 5 was walking to school without an adult, walked with friend 6 months older than me, travelled by bus at 7, a 20 minute journey followed by a 15-20 minute walk down a busy high street, couldn't see my grandchildren coping with this

I could walk across the town to school when I was five . I took the bus for the second part of the road to school when weather was bad. Bus tickets were saved by all children for making card concertinas, valued possessions.

In London I walked alone to primary school from the age of about 8. At 10 I took the 629 bus to dance classes about 30 minutes away, (Haringey). I think I was about 12 when I took the tube alone.

I got the bus home from school, alone, at 8. Mum met me at the bus stop as was a very busy road. Was also out and about on my bike at this age with the neighbours children!

about 9 years old on short local journeys. went by bus to school at 11 and at that age went anywhere on the busses alone during the daytime.

i forgot, tube at the same ages

I walked to school from age 5. Local shops soon after, bigger shopping centre by 10 or 11. Can’t remember when I started using buses/trains alone; I always knew how to, as we didn’t have a car. By 11, I was cycling all over town alone or with friends.

Went to my first gig in London, by bus and train, aged 14.

At 15, I was commuting to London -bus + train, then walk or tube - for work, socialising a lot there, regularly visiting family in Wales or on the south coast by public transport, and cycling long distances for days out.

I walked to school with my younger brother around 7/8 and when I passed 11+ I had to get the bus alone for a 25 min bus ride to my new school. This was in London in the 50s.

I was seven, when I went to Junior School. There were other children on the bus, of course, but it was some distance away in and through a not very nice area. The bus stop was half a mile from my home. Sometimes we walked home so we could spend the bus fare on sweets or go to the library on the way home.

I'd walked to the nearby infant school on my own from age 5 and at 6 was in charge of two younger girls.

At seven+ we were walking quite a long way to Brownies and back in the dark; I'll never forget the night I tried to stop my younger friend from crossing the road, she ran out and a car hit her 😥. Luckily she survived.

My brother and I and a couple of other neighbouring children walked to school, maybe a mile away, no main roads to cross, but a bit of common and a footbridge over a railway line. We did this from a very early age, I remember I was still in the infants. Sometimes my mother would pick us up, but not always. We lived within walking distance of the town so the need for public transport was not so great, I can't remember when I first got on buses and trains. I remember cycling quite a bit in juniors and on buses probably late juniors. Friends and I were navigating ourselves around central London, living less than 20 miles from the capital, by say 14. That was the way it was for our generation, I imagine most contributors to this thread will have similar experiences. There was no helicopter parenting back then, a sort of benign neglect existed on the part of parents, but for children it was a carefree roam around existence.

I have a friend whose daughter is pretty much the same age as my children, whose mother took her to and from school, about 6 or 7 miles away, by car until she was 18 and wouldn't let her on to public transport until she'd reached that "magic" age. When she came to our house one weekend, my children wanted to take her round to the local bowling green, on their bikes or maybe skates, it was a very safe area, literally around the corner from our house and tucked away off a quiet road, her parents said "absolutely not she's not allowed outside without one of us!"I guess my two were about 9 and 13 at the time, and she was the same age as my younger one. That's the extreme end of helicopter parenting it has to be said, but children today are generally more cosseted than our generation ever were.

Oh yes! Callistemon you've triggered a memory, I too was to and from Brownies on my own from age 7, and of course in the winter it was dark

We had our own back lane for our houses, there was a field to play in with woods beside it just down a dirt slope from our lane.
I think I was lucky that I had older siblings, especially my brother who looked out for me, so could wander a bit more. My dog accompanied me everywhere when I got her, I was about 8 or 9 then.
On our street there was my aunty next door, a few doors up was my brothers best friends family, a few doors more were my cousins - aunty's son & family - then friends we'd had forever, further up was another aunty and then my sisters best friends family so pretty much wherever we went someone knew us, apart from all the regular neighbours of course.
Then, another aunty's looked out over the field we played in!
My first school was just across the road from us, with more woods beside that.
I first had a little scooter to scoot about on, then gosh, about 8 or 9 I was given my sisters hand-me-down bike which I didn't get far on at first as it was quite big and my feet just reached the pedals, so I clung to the fences while trying to ride it!
I'd often be sent up to a local shop about the lengths of 3 streets away (all with 30 odd houses on them).
My first try on an actual bus on my own would have cost me about 2p, as I was having to have a bath during the day and did not fancy that so had run out just as a bus pulled up. Luckily, or unfortunately, my mum realised where I'd gone and caught me just in time. I must have been 6 or 7.
I went away to school at 10, parents and sister took me on my first day. Dad would have collected me and dropped me off each time I was to go home and back, but mum said 'no, she can take the bus/train'!
Ohhh, the memories, thanks, biglouis xx

I went to school alone by bus from the age of about 8, and I walked around locally with other children, and sometimes on my own, before that.

At senior school, how we scorned the girl who at 14 was still not allowed to go into Liverpool (from Wirral) alone!

A friend of mine had to teach her son how to use buses when he left school. He’d never been on one.

TerriBull

Oh yes! Callistemon you've triggered a memory, I too was to and from Brownies on my own from age 7, and of course in the winter it was dark

It was along a main road too!