A simple poll
I selected “walked,” though that’s only half of the story.
From 4th until 8th grade, the elementary school that I attended (we had no middle school; elementary school went to 8th grade) was three blocks away, and I walked unless the weather was truly wretched.
After that, I rode the bus to my high school (9th grade on); my high school was about 5 miles away from home, and across a bridge.
Driven to school because we always woke up too late for the bus.
My mom dropped me off on her way to work.
Since the OP stipulated Middle School years (I’m calling that 5th - 8th grades), I had to choose bus.
But in both my Elementary and High School years, I lived close enough to walk.
In High school, I would’ve ridden the very nice used bike my Mom got me one year for Xmas*, but it was still too big to ride comfortably, and I didn’t want to get my ass kicked on a daily basis.
*This bike was apparently made out of lead-filled steel pipes, and its previous owner was likely born larger than I ever grew up to be; I just about needed a step-ladder to mount the thing, and double sets of pedal blocks to work it. Seriously, Wilt Chamberlain could’ve comfortably ridden that bike
And Pee Wee Herman would’ve simply loved it.
I was middle child of 7 so I never lacked a way to school. We hated the bus, a long and hot ride in the warm months . By the time I was in middle school 2 of my older sibs had cars and were licensed . Some how my parents thought it was safe if they transported younger kids to school. If they only knew what went on in those cars, some days!
Elementary school I remember quite a few suspensions from the bus… So I got rides from my mother for a good percentage.
In high-school until i got my license. Highschool I went to was two towns away. Carpooling was shared between my parents and 2 others. I got a ride in. After school I walked a few miles to the train station and took the train to work. After work I walked a few miles home, if I was lucky finishing corresponded with a parent heading home and the picked me up along the way.
Getting my license cut out a lot of walking.
Bus, then train, then another train then walked. 2 hour trip.
Parents drove me and my brother to the train station on the way (ish) to work, train into town, then we walked from there to our schools.
There was a bus the whole way, but it was far slower, as it went round all the villages, and was not timed as a school bus. On the rare occasions I did catch it, when my parents were away, I’d need to get up over an hour earlier, then would arrive over half an hour early, the next one getting me in half an hour late. It was also more expensive (iirc; £1.25 train, £4.00ish bus), because the city my school was in was over the county border, which the bus company treated as a separate fare zone, a fact which also meant I didn’t qualify for free transport, as there were closer schools in the county I lived in.
Parents drove me and my brother to the train station on the way (ish) to work, train into town, then we walked from there to our schools.
There was a bus the whole way, but it was far slower, as it went round all the villages, and was not timed as a school bus. On the rare occasions I did catch it, when my parents were away, I’d need to get up over an hour earlier, then would arrive over half an hour early, the next one getting me in half an hour late. It was also more expensive (iirc; £1.25 train, £4.00ish bus), because the city my school was in was over the county border, which the bus company treated as a separate fare zone, a fact which also meant I didn’t qualify for free transport, as there were closer schools in the county I lived in.
Similar story.
Mum dropped me at the train station, then train, then bus, then walked the last bit. Took about 1.5 hours.
My parents paid for me to go to a very good private school, but it was the other side of the city from where we lived (Birmingham, UK).
Walked. In 5th-6th grades that was a snap - literally a half block.
Just to make up for that 7th grade was by contrast a slog, almost exactly two miles in each direction including the joy of a trudging through a Michigan winter and crossing a major thoroughfare.
8th grade split the difference, but was much easier due to CA weather - just under a mile in each direction.
Walk, always. Distance variable, as high as just under a mile. No such thing as snow days, I walked to school at 40-below. If there was a foot of drifted snow, I shoveled the walk and driveway before leaving for school. High school, rode a bike if the streets were snowfree.
“2. For purposes of this poll, stick with the middle school years; between when you were old enough to leave the house on your own but too young to drive a car.”
That’s a pretty wide definition of “middle school years” since as far as I can remember, it was no big deal for us to leave the house on our own when I was 5 (1959 was a different world), and I walked to school without adult supervision from first through sixth grades.
From 7th-10th grades, I took the bus to a private school that was >5 miles away. Public transportation one year, school bus the rest.
11th-12th grades, when I was old enough to drive but didn’t bother to get my license, I attended the local high school, and did a mix of bus/bike/walk.
Walked to primary school (about half a mile), on my own from about 7 onwards.
Public transport to secondary school (i.e., from age 11 onwards)- in my bit of London, either bus or train as possible. From about 13-14 onwards, we would be going out of school for sports facilities, making our own way by train.
Since this covers 5th thru 8th, I had to choose “some other means”. I traveled via the town’s storm sewer pipes. They were 3+ feet in diameter and relatively easy for someone as small as me to scamper thru.
In 5th and 6th I was getting beat up so often by older kids that I fled into a sewer pipe near the school (in desperation). I had learned already that involving parents/teachers just made things worse and I couldn’t outrun them. The first time they stayed at the entrance taunting me, but were unwilling to follow. I decided to continue in the darkness rather than face them. After what seemed like miles*, I started to see light and found myself looking out of a drain at street level. Got my bearings there and continued on another branch to an opening near my home. I continued this thru end of 6th grade.
For 7th grade, court-ordered bussing dictated I should go to a more “urban” school. And things for me got much, much, worse. But I’ll leave that tale for another time.
*Decades later, I returned as an adult and measured the distance (GPS). The longest section was only about 600 yards. I would have sworn it was miles.
Rural Midwest, two cars, two working parents, school bus was the only option. And heaven forbid if we missed it because mom worked the late evening shift in an industrial plant and she was sleeping. Dad was at the same plant 2-3 hours into his shift for the morning bus. The school ran a late bus ($$$) for after school activities if you were on a “team.” Otherwise we needed to arrange rides home with friends.
My first school was only a couple of blocks away, so I walked (no matter the weather). Then we moved and my second school was far enough away that I would take the city bus in poor weather (including all winter) and bike in good weather (late spring/early fall).
I went with Walked because I did that thru the 8th grade. I took the bus for grades 9-12, but I often walked home if I had after school activities - it was only about a mile. We were a 1 car family, so regardless of the weather, I was on foot. Uphill. Both ways. Mostly I didn’t mind - it was rare time to myself.
My best friend had use of an extra family car, so she’d occasionally give me a ride, but that was a very rare exception.
Driven to school.
But when I stayed in Canada, I took the school bus for a couple of months. Coming from Belgium, where such a service is unheard of except perhaps for the most prestigious private schools, I felt like I was in a movie.