Using public transport as a child

At 6 years old I walked a mile with my 8 year old sister then caught a bus to my first school,4 miles away

When I started school our cleaner's 10 year old daughter collected me, as she had to walk past the door and she walked the couple of hundred yards between home and school with me.

Curiously, I have no memories of how I got home from school. on my own, with the same other child, or whether my mother met me (which seems the most familair when I write it down here.)

From the age of 10 I would take the bus into Birmingham go into Lewis’s and visit the Toy Dept and small Zoo on the roof, just a few rabbits etc. Then I would cross the road to Barrows and go to the cafe and have an orange squash and a chocolate cake with a face on it. Finally catching the bus home.

It has stood me in good stead for now at 77 I am happy to go to a cafe on my own and read my Kindle.

I think one of the reason one would not let a 7 year old travel alone these days is because nobody else does. Was it an ordinary everyday affair for children of that age to be seen travelling alone, we would all accept it.

There is also safety in numbers. If lots of children travelled around alone and in groups, no one would take any notice of them, one travelling alone, when it is not the norm looks uniquely vulnerable.

While we know far more these days about child abuse of all kinds, there is no evidence at all that the probabilities of stranger danger have grown, just the dangers in the home.

I started using 2 busses to go to and from school at 7 years old. One bus into Sheffield city centre changing to bus for school and the reverse to go home. this was in 1958 I certainly wouldn't have let my children do this at 7.

I walked to school alone after the first week, so not quite five and had to cross a major trunk road.
At seven I was getting a bus into the city centre to go to Saturday morning cinema.
My children walked to their primary school after the first couple of days, the school is in the next street. From the age of eleven they travelled to the next city, bus, train and metro and leaving the house at 7.15 am.
At school run time my street is full of cars, you never see a child walking on their own.

Different time,different world... sadly

I was 11. I can’t have been much older when I’d catch the bus into Liverpool and Southport also, but I’d be with friends. We had regular and plentiful busses. Now we have one an hour. My daughter started using it alone when she was 11.

My mother took me to infant school on the first day, after that I had to take myself, crossing two minor roads and one main road, there was no lollipop person and remember clearly almost getting run over by a bus!

I had been sent to the shops before I went to school so I knew the way. I had just turned 5 when I started.

Going to senior school I was given bus money but used to walk, about a mile and a half each way. Nobody at home when I left and came back so it didn't matter how long it took me. I had a few pennies to spend on sweets that way. By 13/14 I was getting the bus/tube into London, Carnaby Street and Kensington for the Biba shop. I loved it.

Witzend

barbadoesbelle at 14, on my exchange trip to Paris, I was shocked to see ‘Defense de cracher’ (No spitting) signs on the Metro. Did people really have to be told not to do it? 😱

I think I remember us having signs around swimming pools about not spitting when I was a child (late 'sixties, probably) here in England.
Does anyone else remember those, or is it a false memory?

barbadoesbelle at 14, on my exchange trip to Paris, I was shocked to see ‘Defense de cracher’ (No spitting) signs on the Metro. Did people really have to be told not to do it? 😱

I will be forever grateful to my parents for encouraging independence in me from a very early age

I dont think it was a matter of encouraging independence with my parents - more getting us out from under their feet.

The attitude to parenting then was that you did not allow small children (and expecially babies) to dominate the household. Babies were fed, burped, changed and then put down to sleep at set times. If they cried they were left to it. Our parents had gone through the war in a city center (Liverpool was bombed extensively) and had learned to "get on with things" without undue sentiment. As kids we were subjected to tough love which was supposed to make us resilient.

Most of my friends got whalloped at some time or another.

Walked 1.25 miles to primary with friend after DMs had escorted us on first day. Walked to secondary 2 miles again with friends. Travelled on bus from aged 7 going into town and return for dance lessons. Never had my own bike but used to "borrow" my brother's and cycle around local area, woukd be 7, 8ish. Young folk are driven everywhere as they seem to find it difficult to walk. How on earth would they manage to text, scroll, read all their Apps if they had to watch out for traffic. I live in a small residential area. 125 properties were added as an extension to the original 22 properties. Initially the new children walked to the end of the road, approx 1/4 walked as had the children from original houses done over many years to meet school bus. 3 buses for 2 secondary and 1 primary needed. The incomers thought this was awful, expecting their children to walk all that distance twice a day as, when it rained, they got wet. Also, when the grassed area was mowed, children cut across this instead of walking on footpath, their shoes took grass into their house. Absolute tragedy! The local authiruty agreed as there was no extra cost, to have the 3 buses navigate the narrow street, having to reverse into a small road to enable them to drive out. There is no through road. Nightmare if you meet a bus on the tight bend half way along road. Don't see many children on bikes now but plenty on electric scooters. That's why children need to be driven everywhere, they get wet when it rains and they take grass into their homes when the grass is cut. There was a bit of a protest based on tge chijdren at keast got some exercise walking to and from the bus stop and there was a social element anticipating they would perhaps speak to one another en route. Completely wasted effort.

When I started grammar school at the age of 11. My primary schools were in walking distance.

Of course public transport was more plentiful 40/50 years ago. Hard to socialise as a teenager when there are only one or two buses a day in villages. Parents have no option but to ferry the children around.

I count myself lucky we lived in small town when my daughter was growing up. We walked everywhere. She walked home from primary school when she was nearing leaving age. I would arrive home from work just a minute or two before her.

Once she started secondary school she and her friends would regularly travel by train into the city (15 minute journey and a more regular timetable and cheaper than the bus service) on a Saturday, but not if there was a football match on. All us Mum's were pretty much in agreement with that. However a rugby match was a different matter and it was considered OK. Not to generalise but the rugby fans were far better behaved than the football fans!!

All this was in the 90's and Noughties.

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...

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.

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.

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

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!

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.

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.

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’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.

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 🚌