Using public transport as a child

Welcome Lovemylife From my own experience I would agree with those findings.

I'm sure some people have inbuilt navigation systems, Lovemylife. One of my DC has, he could have been my "satnav" from the age of 3 or 4 even though he didn't roam alone at that age.

The greatest danger to children lies in their own home, from parents, grandparents, siblings other relations and family friends.

I discussed this aspect of danger far more fully with my children (back in the 1970s) than i did stranger danger.

I lived in a village and use to walk with my friend to school and back four times a day at the age of 5.
We used to go on the bus together into the next town 3 miles away age about 7. either to Saturday morning pictures or we used to go round the shops with half a crown to spend.
I can remember us getting on the wrong bus once to come home.
We used to go out over the fields from about 7 years old all day. Take a picnic down among the fir trees at the old ironstone quarry. Climbing up and down the sides of the quarry.
A few of us used to go bike riding quite far away from about 9 years old.
Happy days.

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Re message from Ailidh

I recall seeing signs on buses saying ‘Spitting not allowed. Offenders will be prosecuted’, when we visited relatives in Erdington, Birmingham. This would have been (c) very late 1960’s/early 1970’s.

I was a young teenager and couldn’t believe what I was reading. We didn’t have any signs like that on our buses in Bristol - and never had!!

I thought it must be because the air wasn’t so clean as in the South and so people had a build up of uggy phlegm in their throats!

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I walked to school from the age of five, along with my six and seven year old brother and sister. The first bus journey I remember taking alone was when I was nine years old. I had to go to a haberdashery shop and buy three newborn size baby vests and three baby nighties; thus confirming my suspicion that my mum had (yet another) baby in her tummy. Before that I went on bus journeys to my nana’s house with my sister who was two years older than me.

My grandchildren love coming to stay with me because it’s the only time they ever go on a bus or train. In fact my son sent me a photo a couple of weeks ago - at school my five year old granddaughter had made a model of a bus and wrote about it. 😄

I lived in a large village. I walked to school by myself or, more often, with friends from the age of seven in the top infants. When I was eight, I caught the bus by myself to take me to the next village for my piano lesson. By the time I was ten, I would cycle all over the Norfolk countryside with my friend. We lived in a small close with a lane at the bottom of it and fields with sheds behind. We played in groups of friends from a young age with the older children being in charge. This was the late sixties to the mid seventies and was considered quite normal at the time.

Rather like Ailidh, I walked to primary school on my own.

I managed to pass 11-plus, and my parents picked a grammar school that needed a train journey (1 an hour), it was about 50 mins door to school. After the Beeching axe of many train routes, inc that one, I had a couple of years of getting a bus to that school, a longer walk to the stop, and a longer journey. It was all very annoying, we lived a few hundred yards over a county boundary, if they'd bought the other side of that border, I'd have had a much shorter journey to an even better school, but I doubt they realised when buying the place.

Now we live in a 'village', pretty much a suburb of the next- door town, and though some do walk to school, they're usually accompanied, and the householders near the school gate constantly complain about cars dropping-off and later collecting their precious cargo!

There was a bus service that passed the end of our road when I was growing up - buses were every 10 minutes and took passengers either into town or the opposite direction further into the estate. I remember catching it with friends to go to the tanner rush at the cinema on Saturday mornings when I was around eight years old. As long as there was a group of us and we stayed together our parents were not particularly concerned.

During school holidays we would be out and about most of the day and always looked out for each other - none of us were ever alone.

my understanding is that the sign relates to TB. I was brought up in Brum and remember those signs. I've also read novels from other parts of the country which had similar signs relating to TB

Been hopping on/ off buses since i was 8 , and my big bro was 9. We lived just 10 miles from London and quite a few times , from 11 onwards , me and big bro would skip school and nip on a train to London ….and navigate around by ourselves….always with eye on his ‘Hop-along -Cassidy) watch , so we knew when to get back to our house, ready for when school was out!
Once we hooked onto a party of American tourists going around St .Pails Cathederal ….we had a great time in whispering gallery.
We were adventurous …independent rogues…and our ostentatious knew all about our trips…and as long as we didn’t fall behind in the schoolwork …they considered learning g to navigate london was a necessity of life.

Parents … where the heck did ostentatious creep into that!?!?

Travelled on two buses into and out of the city when I was 11 to Grammar School carrying all manner of things plus the usual satchel heaving with homework. Came home in the dark in winter.

I went to a secondary school two bus rides away but was with my older sister until she left when I was 14. I also had to go to physio’ 3 x per week - an extra bus ride straight after school. I found it quite liberating travelling on my own after so long . In the 6th form , some bus conductors insisted that I pay full fare but wanted me to vacate my seat for adults when the need arose because I was in school uniform . Bit of a quandary!

I walked to school from age 5 and travelled alone overnight from SW Scotland to London on the train, crossed London on the tube and then on to Kent. I done that journey twice a year and never had an issue. It saddens me to see young adults that can barely cross the road on their own

I lived in London growing up so used the buses from an early age …Absolutely loved the Red Bus Rover tickets where u could hop on and off so My Friend and I would go all over London 🚌

I’ve really enjoyed reading all your accounts, everything so familiar to me, very happy carefree childhoods. I will be forever grateful to my parents for encouraging independence in me from a very early age. Mum took me to infant school on first day only, then I just walked, through rain, snow & ice, meeting friends along the way. From age 9 (late 1950s) I took my brother aged 4 on top deck front seat of bus, 2 miles into busy town bus station, then a walk to cinema for Sat morning pictures. After show, long walk through busy streets to Nan & Grandad’s house for our Saturday sixpence each, then straight to sweetshop on the way back to the bus station. I always begged little brother not to ask Grandad for bread and dripping every week. Sometimes we walked to the other Grandparents’ house as well on the same day! Age 11 I cycled 6 miles to and from Secondary school, bulging satchel strapped to the rear bike rack. Weekends, I cycled alone many miles along country lanes, with a picnic in my saddlebag. At 14 I went into London on the train, 40 mins. and could navigate the Underground easily. At 16 I got a summer holiday job & bought a second hand Honda 50 with the £40 to drive to Sixth Form and on Saturdays alone (9 miles each way) to Romford market.
My parents didn’t even have a phone, let alone tracking my every move on a mobile App, as helicopter parents do now. How lucky we were.

Many Decades Ago… Things Seemed Safer. Parents allowed their children more freedom to roam, explore and travel around on their own. I know mine did - but we lived in a small town of 9,000 people where everyone seemed to know each other.

There weren’t as many cars, everyone had bikes, we walked around in groups of 2-4.

There wasn’t crazy social media and video war games with violence and guns that young males are addicted to that has affected a “loner” mental health status. Not to mention the availability of drugs. More cars driving at high speeds.

Good parenting these days means protecting your kids, even if it means driving a lazy teen to a school event. They will still grow up to be someone you can be proud of. 😊

I walked to school by myself from the age of five. It included crossing a fairly main road but there wasn’t a lot of traffic compared with today. On the way home I was allowed to play on the swings in the park for 20 minutes.
We had a coach to take us to grammar school. If we wanted to stay for an after school activity it was two buses home. So I rarely stayed. My sister and I caught the bus from age 11 to go swimming, and from 14 we were allowed into the city on the bus, including in the evening for the church youth group. I recall “snogging” in the bus station afterwards.

We walked to and from primary school unsupervised from a young age. It started from the very snowy day when Mum was running a bit behind getting four year old me and my baby sister ready to go out into the blizzard to fetch our five year old sister. When Mum opened the front door there she was having got tired of waiting and walked herself home!

This would have been early 1966. Mum took me on my first day in September that year but after that we were on our own.

Secondary school was a bus ride away and of course we did that on our own. Even the first day of first year.

Barbadosbelle

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Re message from Ailidh

I recall seeing signs on buses saying ‘Spitting not allowed. Offenders will be prosecuted’, when we visited relatives in Erdington, Birmingham. This would have been (c) very late 1960’s/early 1970’s.

I was a young teenager and couldn’t believe what I was reading. We didn’t have any signs like that on our buses in Bristol - and never had!!

I thought it must be because the air wasn’t so clean as in the South and so people had a build up of uggy phlegm in their throats!

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Fellow Bristolian here. We certainly didn't have "no splitting" signs on buses. In fact the first I saw of those was when I went to Paris at the age of 17.

We lived in a village outside of Bristol and I used to get the long and winding country bus to the bus station (which was grim) and then walk up Stokes Croft to school in Cheltenham Road. I would have been 11 when I started in 1968. It was an "interesting" journey, walking past City Road. Quite an eye opener as a country girl!

Apart from nursery school I don't recall my parents ever taking me to school, it was on the bus and we paid a few 1d even though it was a school bus, it wasn't free. Sometimes I'd buy sweets and walk, maybe a mile? I also remember catching the train for Saturday morning cinema in Cardiff or swimming at the Olympic sized pool there - certainly well before 11

I could walk to my primary school because it was only a couple of hundred yards down the road and there were no roads to cross. When I was 10 I moved to another school and walked a mile across a park with the girl next door. We did meet a flasher once but we were careful not to tell anyone in case we were stopped from going in the park!

My grandson had to go by bus when he started secondary school and had no problems.

I always went to grammar school by 2 buses, on my own but often with other school friends + a 15 min walk to the bus stop and a 10 min walk across the city to catch the second bus. I hated coming home on dark, wet, wintry nights down a long, lonely country lane, lugging a heavy satchel. Primary school was maybe a 20 min walk to the bus stop for a 5-10 bus ride. My Mum used to come with me until I was about 9 and then I used to do it alone from the bus stop. I then used to come home with a boy who lived along the way to the bus - we were allowed out of school 10 minutes early to make sure we caught the bus.

Like some previous posters, I walked all by myself to school, rain or shine, from the age of 5.
Mind you, my father was the headmaster and we lived in the attached schoolhouse...