41 per cent of 5-10yrs old travel by car to school - how did you travel?

[FridgeMagnet]

I got a lift until, well, to be fair, I was told that I wasn't going to get a lift and I was big enough to bloody walk it now

I lost about two stone. I'm not joking.

edit: I think two or three miles. Took about half an hour at a fair pace.

 

[rover07]

I walked, about a mile, and my mum was the lollypop lady. So we were always really early

 

[the button]

Yeah, walked about a mile for me too.

 

[cesare]

Infants 5-7years, my mum walked with me and picked me up to walk back. Primary 8-10 years, I walked. Approx 1 km.

Both my secondary schools were quite a distance away, couple of buses plus walk. Depending on work start time, sometimes my mum would give us a lift on her way to work and we got the bus from there.

 

[scifisam]

Walked, but it wasn't too far - maybe half a mile in primary, a mile and a half in secondary, with no dangerous roads.

I walk my daughter to school. It's only five minutes away, but there are two dangerous roads with messed up lights to cross on that five minutes. About half her class (she's just started year 6) walk to and from school on their own or with other kids. When it comes to secondary school, she'll still have the dangerous roads to cross, so I'll have to find a way round that.

 

[marty21]

bus to primary junior, although i was able to walk there for one year when we moved nearby, then bus to big school, and schooler back

 

[paolo]

Ed... You missed out public transport!

After primary (10 mins walk) it was bus for me.

 

[chooch]

Car. Parents' bastard catholicism to blame (and something complicated about one borough being primary-secondary and the other being primary-middle-secondary). Later train and a long walk or bus, or long bike ride. Worth it though, to go to a series of frankly shit schools with monk and nun input

 

[Geri]

Our school was literally just around the corner, so I walked. We didn't have a car anyway.

When I went to comprehensive, which is a bit further, I would either walk or cycle.

 

[subversplat]

Not sure if that's both ways though.

I read this and thought "Eh? Well it's hardly as if the walk home is going to be longer!"

Then the penny dropped.

I walked to school until secondary school, and even then I walked home every day.

 

[_angel_]

38 per cent of children aged 5 to 10 year old were driven to school in 1995-97, and by 2006 this had risen to 41 per cent. I can only guess that it's risen even higher since.

So, were you driven to school when you were 5-10 years old? Or did your legs do the work?

http://www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/nugget.asp?id=1576

my dad worked down the road so normally got a lift to primary school. sometimes walked but not alone.

when we went to the same school(middle) of course we went with him. high school, i walked.

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

My mother walked me to school the first day of grade one to ensure that I knew the way, and from then on, I walked by myself or with friends.

 

[Badgers]

Walked to all three schools.
Went to college on a 50cc bike.

Was pretty lucky to leave close to all three of my schools, in fact the secondary I attended was about 60 metres away.

 

[tarannau]

2-3 buses


I did my 11 plus and got an 'Out of Borough' place. Every day, in a bright red blazer, from Brixton to the suburbs. Took me a little while to recover my street cred after that.

At primary school we had a kind of car club. My mum and two other parents used to spit the lifts

 

[girasol]

I walked. From the age of 7 on my own.

 

[BlackSpecs]

Walked then bus !

 

[Bahnhof Strasse]

Used to cycle to a mate's house and get driven from there. No fucking poll option for that


Baby Bahn starts proper school in 2 weeks, she will walk. As it's opposite our house

 

[King Biscuit Time]

Walk to primary, secondary and college. Walked with my mum to Primary until I was 9 or 10 then I went alone or with friends from the street.

I was getting annoyed about this yesterday when I saw a road full of BMW X5s and similar twat-wagons crawling towards a posh secondary school, all containing a stressed out looking parent and more often than not a fucking 14 year old. THE CARS WERE GOING SLOWER THAN WALKING PACE! What are these people thinking?

Even though my Mum was home more often than not in the mornings, and she could drive, it was just taken that getting a lift to School was not an option. So there was no bitterness on my part- even when it was lashing down - it was just the way it was.

 

[Chairman Meow]

I walked, accompanied by mum or a neighbour until I was eight or so. Then I walked on my own ( different school). It was only a few hundred yards away with one road.

Sprog is seven and walked to school by my childminder, unless its chucking it down (like today) when then get a lift. The neighbours kids walk together, they are 9, 8 and 5. There is only one road to cross, but its a big one. Sadly the lollipop lady died of cancer (aged 42) this summer and has yet to be replaced.

 

[gentlegreen]

I walked ... but then this was the 1960s when car ownership was much lower, and to be fair it was only 1/10 miles

(and 'twas genuinely a lot more fields back then)

 

[Griff]

Always walked to school.

 

[Louis MacNeice]

Always walked or cycled; distances varied between half a mile and three miles. First school was a village one with ninety pupils, then moved to a much bigger town with busy roads. The walk to but more particualrly from school was a great time of freedom between school and home; the journey with detours, football, chatting and playing could stretch considerably.

Cheers - Louis MacNeice

 

[kyser_soze]

Walked or cycled, distance was never more than 1/2 mile...

 

[roryer]

I was taken on the bar of my father's bike down the hill about 1km to infant and primary school, and would walk home with friends. Obviously at about the age of seven I was too big to fit on the bar so just walked independently.

Secondary school was about 3 miles, which I sometimes walked, sometimes cycled sometimes took the bus.

In fact it was sitting on a half empty bus, stuck in queues of traffic on the Wickham road on the way into Croydon where my school was, where I realised a transport system based on car dependecy was incredibly inefficient.

It takes about 10 - 15 minutes on the bus to Croydon at normal times, but was almost 45 minutes at peak hours.

Even at the age of 11 I realised that if the drivers of the cars would just use the bus then everybody would get to work or school in 15 minutes.

However because it always took 45 minutes, it was almost as quick to walk, which I quite often had to as my Mum thought that all the cars made it too dangerous for me to cycle.

 

[Vintage Paw]

My mum took me in her car. Right from infant school til I was 14.

The main reason for this, I think, is that my mum was incredibly protective of me, neurotically so, and add in the fact that I lived outside the catchment area for our school so there was no one else to walk in with and no nearby bus into school, well, that makes for daily car journeys.

When I reached 14 I went to the upper school site, which was closer to home, (not that the lower school site, juniors or infants was massively further away) so I walked.

(This all was from 1983-94, or 96 if you also count 6th form, btw)

 

[Thora]

I think I was mostly driven, as my primary school was on the other side of town and the walk would have taken I guess about 30-45 minutes and my family was never organised enough in the mornings to leave that early. My parents worked in different towns though so would drop us off at school on the way to work, but we'd often walk home with a babysitter.

 

[London_Calling]

Juniors - walked, 3/4 mile each way.

Big School - cycled, 1 1/2 miles each way.

 

[Louis MacNeice]

I should add that my walks and cycles took place between 1966 and 1978; it was all fields round here then.

Cheers - Louis MacNeice

 

[Roadkill]

Always walked, with the exception of a couple of terms when I was at a primary school in the next village, when we had to go in the car.

 

[nino_savatte]

I always walked. But when we lived in Germany, we had to take a school bus.