Using public transport as a child

At 11 I got the bus to high school

Happy carefree memories, our Mums took us to school on the first day and then we walked. Brownies on the bus, a short ride but only seven years old! It sounds bonkers in light of today’s world but it was nothing out of the ordinary then. I fully understand parents worrying about youngsters now.

At 11 I used to frequently travel into Liverpool city centre from Everton, to get the shopping that mum needed from st Johns market or coopers. The numbers 19 or 26 bus. The double decker buses were always full and frequent

At 7 I used to walk to brownies at the primary school, through thomas whites blocks of flats. Also walked to school the same way before I was old enough for brownies, maybe 6 years old. I never had any bad encounters

I think the big difference between now and when I was wandering around by myself (1940s/50s) is traffic. We lived not far from a town, but where we were was mostly fields and woods.. Cars were extremely rare on our road. (We had one, but it was unusual.) I honestly don’t think there are any more ‘peculiar men’ around now that there were then. The difference is that then they couldn’t lure/force you into a car.

My Mum and other mums had a rota to walk a group of us to and from the Infants School which was in another village. Junior school was a different site and a few of us from the same street walked to and from school.
I then started Grammar School and walked a fair distance from home to get a bus that went closer to the school.
My DDs went to schools 25 miles away and I drove them both ways.
My friend picks both her DGC up from school every night. They are 15 and 11 and I know they could easily walk home.

I lived in a country area - 1.5 miles to school, so from age 5 went on the bus with another girl also my age without adults supervising us. Bus would stop near the school (not a regular bus stop) and conductor would see us over the road to the school - return journey, bus would stop for us outside school and either my parent or other girl's parent would meet us off the bus - was a very busy A road to cross. Started school in 1949.
From around 8 or 9 years old, we'd regularly explore local country lanes and footpaths and farm tracks, as a group of about 4 or 5 of us, were just told to stay together. From age 11 had to cycle to school about 7 miles away - first two miles on my own on busy A road then met up with friends for the rest of the way. In winter (December and January only) - we did get a bus provided but had to walk over a mile to get it.

I usually went to school by car and rarely by bus until age 11 .
Then , my parents decided to move and chose my school accordingly .
We didn't move .
I joined a group of five girls , who did the journey by train .
It was fine .
But one day , I was delayed by my art teacher and missed them .
A guy followed me on the High Street before making sexual advances .
I was as green as grass , but knew that it was wrong and was frightened .
When I got home - I told my Grandma and the police were called .
They asked me what he said /did and then , asked to describe him .
I can show you where he works .
When I told them -they exchanged glances and said , we know him and then told my parents that it would never happen again .

And it didn't !

It knocked my confidence about going out on my own .
It took me two years to go on a train by myself .
The first time that I did I shook like a leaf .
The memory of it is so clear that I can remember what I wore and which shop I went to and what I bought .

I'd get in the ladies only carriage if a lady or ladies were seated .

Aged 15 , I was nearly raped on the train -but I'd learnt to be street wise and promised to meet the guy later , because it wasn't private .

We lived in the country far from our school. Some unfortunate students had to board, Dad drove us to and from school. I did the same with ours.

To and from Junior school on my own, either by bus or could keep the fare if I walked.
My dog needed walking - my dog so my job - before and after school regardless of daylight - we walked many many miles over the years! Some Summer mornings I'd walk her 5 miles or so over the hills before school, but always a good walk around the park before school and a proper walk in the evening.

As a young teenager I discovered long distance cycling and so off I went round the country lanes, often clocking up 100 or so miles in a day.
No mobile phones of course but most of the adults in my family were local teachers and also active in various church communities. My brother and I soon learned that we were recognised by many people. Useful if we needed help, (not that I remember doing so), not so great for getting up to mischief!

Difficut to generalise, I lived in in 10 or 11 locations in 4 different countries. But by secondary school age. I was traveling on public transport in Hong Kong and Singapore , and when we came back to England my sister and I travelled on buses and trains including multiple changes to and from boarding school at half term and term ends.

At 13 and 15 my sister and I were making international flights, nominally under th1e charge of a member of the cabin crew, but effectively left ot our own devices.

I started my children out on their own at 11. We moved to a town, just a mile from the town centre, railway station etc. I walked the 2 children, 9 and 11 into town and brought them back on the bus. The 9 year old had to wait to be 11 to go down alone. At 12 I put DS on a train tot ravel 4 stops to see a friend. First time His mother met hom and the same when the frined made the trip. After that they managed on their own.

Of course all this was happening before mobile phones.

My mummy took me to school when I was absolutely desperate to be allowed to go on my own.

Then, when I was finally allowed, I wasn't to go upstairs in case any "rough kids" were there...
(And because it made my socks really dirty)

I regularly walked the three quarters of a mile to/from school alone from 6 or 7 years old. Half of it through a dark, wooded area, quite often alone.
I occasionally caught a bus home.

Certainly by ten/eleven, I was allowed to take a bus across the moors with a friend to the nearest small town with a swimming pool. I remember us walking the 3 miles home, having spent our return fare on sweets, but I probably didnt tell my mum about that.
I was allowed to take a bus to my grandma's by then, too - she lived just over 3 miles away, but the bus took a long route that I think took at least 40 minutes, then a ten minute walk.

By 12, I was allowed (with some reluctance to begin with from my mum) to go alone to the nearest large town, about 5 miles away. I loved that freedom to go around the shops on my own!
To be honest, I couldn't (and still can't) understand her reluctance on that one, as we were pretty much free-range children locally long before that age and doing far riskier things closer to home on a regular basis!

These things would have been in the late '60s/early '70s, as I started secondary school in '72.

I'm not suggesting that it would be wise to give young children so much freedom nowadays, as things are very different.
For a start, it was rare to see any men out and about back then beween 9 -5, as the vast majority of people worked very predictable hours, and the roads were very quiet for the same reason.
And it was very rare for children to set out to hurt other children. Yes, there were occasional scuffles between groups of boys, but these things were generally very minor, it wasnt usual to carry around some kind of weapon, or to set out with the intention of seriously injuring anyone as seems to be increasingly common nowadays.

However, despite these changes in society, I do think that some of today's parents are overprotective of their children to the point where it could affect their confidence and independence long term.

I was taking the bus home from school alone (3 mile journey) from about 6.

I once missed the usual bus (dawdling) and didn’t realise that there’d be another if I waited.
So I walked home, probably dawdling again, stopping to look in the pet shop I’d passed so many times on the bus.

Goodness knows how long it took me - my poor mother was frantic!

alone - by train from aged 6 (in the care of the guard) met at station by teacher.

My husband aged 5 by bus with 2 changes en route!!!

both in rural Kent

I walked to infant school on my own with a friend from the second week of school.

At the age of perhaps 6 I was sent on my own to my aunt in Cornwall on the train which involved a change at Oakhampton from Plymouth.

I also frequently visited my grandmothers home on my own at the age of 6 which involved 2 buses, crossing a main road and a walk through a dodgy council estate.

I spent hours roaming the countryside (all day sometimes if I had a packed lunch)

Looking back, I had total freedom.

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!

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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 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 forgot, tube at the same ages

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.