What age to go on a (public) bus alone?

[BestZebbie]

How old were your children before you let them go on a public bus into town?

Did this age differ if they were on their own or with a friend?

Did it involve you putting them on/meeting them off it (though obviously at the other end they'd not have you)?

What age did they go on a school bus without you putting them on/meeting them directly from it (not a bus trip from school with their class teacher, transport to/from the premises)?

DD was 11, thr summer before she started secondary. She needed to learn to use public transport to get to secondary school on her own (normal age to travel alone in London).

I taught her to travel alone as we couldn't always expect her to be travelling with friends, so I needed her to be confident in doing it on her own.

She just travelled from home to the bus stop on her own and also from the stop at the end to her destination, no one met her at the stop. No one would be meeting her on her way to or from school so that's what she needed to get used to.

Summer term of Year 5 going to school with younger sister. I walked them to the bus stop and put them on the bus. There was only a short walk at the other end to get to school. They phoned me to say they'd got there. In the afternoon they mainly got a lift but if they were on the bus called me to say they were on it so I knew when to expect them back. There were a number of "rules" so they had to sit downstairs not upstairs and if they came home on the bus they did so with a couple of girls of a similar age who lived nearby.