Seems like we went everywhere from age 8 via bicycle. No supervision, just be back for dinner. Worked out fine and there were no designated bicycle lanes.
Aged 8, I was in the UK in the 1990s.
- Most children went to the nearest school (no longer the case with increased choice from parents)
- The tabloid "paedo-fear" thing hadn't really set in, so more children were allowed outside unsupervised.
- There were fewer people, and fewer working people [1]
- The number of car trips has gone up (although not much), and the number of walking trips has gone down massively [1]
- The number of children being driven to school (on a parent's way to work) has increased massively [1]. That presumably adds traffic at the worst possible place and time for children who could otherwise walk or cycle to school.
[1] https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/...