As a similarly aged child in the USA, nearly every child was bussed to school in a school bus. When I was growing up, school was far away, only reachable by car or bus. After looking it up on a map, I discovered that it was less than a mile away, and would have been easily bikeable or even walkable if there was a safe route to get there. I think I spent more time waiting at the bus stop each day than it would have taken to just walk there.
On a few occasions I missed the bus and mom drove in to pick me up since walking home was unthinkable.
Born in '81, about a 1mi walk home, we spent most of it walking through the ditch on the side of the road, playing in drainage culverts under the road, etc. Not safe, but fun!
On a few occasions I missed the bus and mom drove in to pick me up since walking home was unthinkable.