Using public transport as a child

I lived in a big city and after the first few weeks I walked to and from school myself. Probably about a mile each way. If it was raining I got a penny for the bus. Goodness knows how I knew which bus to get. This was in 1960.

I first went from primary school to my granny’s on the bus when I was seven. The bus went directly. I had a road to cross at each end of the journey, but in 1955, they weren’t very busy. By the time I was ten, my parents both worked, even sometimes in the evening. I was fairly unsupervised, and went off on my bike by myself, often in fairly isolated areas. There were a couple of instances when I might have been in danger, but luckily was unharmed. Recently, I was a bit dubious when my ten year old GD was allowed to go off by herself to a small out of the way park near where they were staying temporarily. A sign of the times.

I used to travel by bus, by myself to the nearest town for music lessons and to the childrens' cinema programmes on a Saturday morning. This was before I was 11.

When I went to grammar school I walked to catch a bus (about 15 minutes) to the town where I then caught a train to the county town.

I walked to and from school , from a very young age, there was one road to cross , which was busy for the era, mid 60s, it took about 5 mins. When I progressed to senior school the walk was a bit longer, 15 minutes and usually walked it with my friend . I used public transport to visit friends from about 9/10 and was put on a train from Paddington to S. Wales, in the care of the guard and another gentleman passenger at about 11/12. I was quite confident travelling. Thankfully nothing happened to me.

Every July my parents used to put me on the bus in Preston and I would travel to Nottingham to stay with my aunt uncle and cousins for the summer holidays. I’m sure someone in the bus was ‘looking out’ for me but I wasn’t aware of any supervision

I am 67 and I remember going to town on my own on the bus for the first time at 13 I was so excited, my sister worked in the market. I walked to see her, went to Thornton for some sweets and came home. I was so chuffed! My friend and I went to Bridlington for the day on the bus when we wer 14 and a half from York,! I those days , my father worked away and my mum had my little sister to look after. We felt so grown up and were fine. Times seem very different today.

Probably about 7. We had to get across London on a bus, and my mother didn't always give us the right fare. That was in the early seventies though, so no one worried about us. The conductor would get cross but never kicked us off. I didn't allow my children to until Year 6 and that was walking to a local school.

I lived in a big city and close to everything so town centre, beach schools etc. so I began paper rounds which I think was 13 yrs of age, regularly cycled out to the beach around same time (was about 2mile cycle ride) also along the beach. Walking with a friend to town again locally about 1 mile away, sometimes buses, always walked to school, junior school was about 15 min walk, senior school was across the road.
My parents, like many other parents didn’t have a car, so I feel I became quite confident at going out at a young age.
Nightclubs I remember I got in underage, and me .& a friend walked back again about a 2 mile walk along main roads, about 2 in the morning, this was back in mid 70’s, my mum would never get to sleep until she heard me come in. Unlike a lot of youngsters these days get lifts everywhere, I live near a senior school & staggered as to how these children are not walking. Unless they come from over a mile??

As a child I went to junior school (about 1/3 mile away) on my own, crossing 2 quiet roads, in the 1950’s.
My eldest daughter, aged 6, went off on her bike, around our block of houses (all pavement) aged 6, in 1980’s.
At aged 11 she went off on a bus, to town and back, on own.
Then in 1990 and aged 14, on the train, on her own.

I was 8 when I walked to school and back. I lived in a rural area and occasionally my mum would pick me up but that was a rare occurrence. A school friend of mine introduced me to the village bus and clutching the tuppence she lent me I joined her on a couple of occasions as we both got off at the same bus stop but I usually walked most of the way home on my own.

At 9 or 10 I used to visit an aunt who lived by a busy road and I used to stand on the roundabout and write down car numbers in my notebook.
I wouldn't let a child do that now.

(What a nerd i must have been!)

I used to ride my bike aged 10 all over the countryside with my friend for miles our parents didn’t have a clue where we were .Those days no mobile phones and virtually no traffic on roads No front doors locked

I was a "trainspotter", lived in Wellingborough (Northamptonshire) and at 13 would buy a "Midlands Rover Ticket" that covered from Bedford to Sheffield and across to Peterborough and Doncaster and would spend all day (and some nights) on the trains, getting my "loco numbers". My parents had no problems and that was without mobile phones, just 2p for the phone box in case I needed to call them!

I was sent home from school by a teacher with a message to tell my mum not to send me back at lunchtime as the snow was bad and I was only 6.
My mum said I was fine and gave me money to get the bus back to school as she didn't believe it was a problem.
My teacher was not happy.

I grew up in London and walked to school from age 5 on my own. I caught the bus sometimes if it was raining from about 7 when I changed school. I walked to and from Brownies on my own in the evening from about age 8.

My mother passed the scholarship to grammar school but couldn't go as it was too far to walk, there was no bus and her parents couldn't afford to buy her a bicycle.
Instead she stayed at the village school and ended up helping to teach the infants when she was 14.

My grandmother told me she walked 3 miles to school. There were no tram routes in that direction. She showed me pictures of her in an ankle length dress with a white pinafore over it, black stockings and lace up boots. Each girl carried her lunch in a little bowl tied up in a hanky. One day she fell in the playground and put huge holes in the knees of her stockings. Unfortunately the teacher only had blue thread so she got a telling off when she got home.

I think a lot of it depends on the child. By the time he was six DS had shown that he was quick thinking and sensible when he acted quickly and correctly in minor emergencies. DD at the same age was far more likely to panic. I certainly wouldn't have expected DS to be able to control his sister, if they were out together, she was far too wilful. Whereas at similar ages, my younger sister would literally cling to me and look to me for leadership and protection.

My Gdcs’ school doesn’t allow them to go to and from school on their own until (IIRC) year 5. Which will be Gdd1 next year, but AFAIK they’re not allowed to accompany younger siblings (of which there will then be two) so that’s going to be a fat lot of use.

It’s roughly a 15 minute walk, with one busy road to cross, but there’s a proper pedestrian crossing very close to the school.
TBH I’d trust Gdd1 now anyway, but probably not Gds (7) - something of a human hurricane - more than once I’ve had to remind him to LOOK! even when using a proper crossing, because some drivers are bad enough to ignore red lights.

I was 11 when I started using buses. I would use them still if a reasonable service existed in the South West.

I cycled to grammar school and back in the summer months from the age of 11, none of my friends did and it was rather a lonely journey across a common for part of the way.

I walked to primary school - mile there and mile back.

I used buses on my own from the age of 5.

As you might already have guessed I am grandma age .....

My children did not do much on their own as far as school journeys were concerned as we live rurally with no public transport; but I did take them to the pedestrian precinct of our nearest city and let them loose there with a bit of cash on their pockets from the age of about 7.

I do think parents are (probably with a degree of reason) a lot more protective now than they were a few decades ago.

But I do remember being shocked in the very early 90s that a schoolfriend of a dd was not allowed, at 12 or 13, to go shopping in town without a parent.

I was probably too much the other way! When they were no more than 13, dd2 and a schoolfriend announced that they wanted to take a day trip to Calais, on their own! They wanted an adventure, and to practise their French.

My initial reaction, ditto of the other mother, was a firm NO! - but after an awful lot of agonising, we gave in. The trip involved a train from outer SW London, into the centre, across London, train to Dover, and foot passenger tickets to Calais.
And this was well before everyone had mobile phones.

You can imagine our exhortations of Stay Together! Keep your money and passport safe! etc., and all parents having kittens until they were safely back.
But there was no trouble, and they thoroughly enjoyed their ‘adventure’.

I’d never have allowed it now! Calais is a very different proposition from what it was then.

Around the age of 7 for me, I would get on the bus to travel about 2 miles, if my Uncle was on (he was a bus conductor) you know with the proper ticket machine round his neck,

I would give him my bus fair(think it was a sixpence or something) then when he gave me my ticket in my hand he would give me the sixpence back .I would then be off to the toffee shop to look at the Penny tray.

One time I had my 2 wheeled scooter and the bus conductor (not my Uncle) said " you cant bring that on" so I had to scoot the 2 miles on my scooter.

I think by 8 I was walking home from my school to my father's workplace - there were only side roads to cross though but think the big change came at 10 when I went to grammar school which was a longish (40mins?) bus ride away. I travelled alone and only one bus an hour. If I missed the one back I could get a different one that meant I walked home about an extra 1½ miles or took the shortcut through a churchyard and woodland.

I think I was 9 or 10 when I was put on a train to visit my aunt in the Isle of Wight. A friend of the family crossed me over London and put me on the next train.

My children used to go from the Midlands on a train to Dorset occasionally to visit grandparents but there were always two of them.