I recall walking to school from the first day of P1, no parent or adult with you - you were just sent.
TBF, the risk of getting knocked down was minimal because cars were a rarity on the road. You could hear one coming from hun dreds of yards away, and we all turned and watched to see what number plate it had. They were all MZ, NZ, OZ, PZ, etc. I remember well looking out for the new SZ, TZ and UZ in my last years in primary school.
We had one "rich girl" in our year - not only did daddy have a car, but mummy had one too and brought her to school and collected her in it every day. Never once did they offer anyone else a lift and some of our class lived very close by her. The rest of us had more fun though playing in the snow, ice; putting the knees out of our trousers and going the messiest way home from school rather than the most direct.