Middle school: walked, half block. I think the first part I walked with an afterschool program group 10 or so blocks until I could convince my parents to latchkey.
Elementary: drove, though might’ve walked occasionally with parents? (~6 blocks)
High school: drove after 16, one of two buses otherwise, about 4 miles
School buses were never an option for me or anyone in my school district who wasn’t special needs.
We moved quite a bit, so I switched schools a few times. Mostly I walked or rode my bike. but there was one year (Grade 4) that I went to a private school and my mom drove me in the morning, but to get home I took the school bus to the subway station, rode the subway a few stops and then took the bus and walked home from the bus stop.
I walked to school every day. I would have taken a bus to high school had I not made it into a specialized high school but since I did, I took a bus there.
At least you didn’t have to take the bus.
From elementary through middle school I was transported by an amazing device that would, literally, get me to school in the blink of an eye. I would step up to a large, brightly colored contraption that had many multicolored, flashing lights and an alien looking operator. The operator would throw a lever to allow me to access the machine, then reverse the lever to seal me in. I would assume a seated position, facing forward, the machine would shudder to life and the next thing I knew I was at school.
[sub]If you parsed the above paragraph correctly, you’ll know that I slept on the school bus[/sub]
When I was a kid in Queens, I went to a Catholic school down the block from my house. I could walk there in 30 seconds or so.
I took the subway to Manhattan for high school and college.
I rode the bus in junior high. I had to walk a block from my house to the bus stop.
I was driven by my one of my parents to school every day until I drove myself.
My main transport was my bike. When my parents’ scheduled coincided with mine, there might be one day a week when they dropped me off or picked me up, and the bike went in the back of the station wagon. And when it rained, they would drive me. I had an expensive clarinet that didn’t need to get wet. When there was a lot of snow on the ground, or it was very cold, I would take the bus, unless my parents could pull together a winter months carpool, which they did IIRC, two years out of three. It gets pretty cold in Queens in Dec.-Feb., and the walk to the busstop wasn’t short. It’s not like now, where the bus stops in front of every house.
But I’d say 75% of my trips to school were by bike.
I biked mostly to elementary school, too.
In high school, it was all sorts of different things. My senior year, I mostly got to drive myself.
Wow. OK, so everyone is going into some detail. Here’s my elementary school rundown
Preschool-2nd, went to Jewish day school. Walked sometimes with my aunt, sometimes just with my older cousins. Had cousins on both sides of the family at the same school.
3rd, we moved to Queens, and I biked or walked usually, but I got driven during inclement weather.
4th, lived in Moscow, went to the Embassy school, took public transportation. #10 bus. Had to walk about two blocks to the bus stop, and three blocks to the school.
5th, same as 3rd.
6th, 7th, 8th-- pretty much biked.
High school, biked or took the city bus, until my cousin got her license. She drove every day, because she left early to take classes at the university. So either I’d haul my bike on her car, or I’d take the school bus home.
I walked ten miles in the snow
Luxury!
Really hard to vote. In the winter or it was stormy, my dad drove me there as he taught there, but I walked home as I was finished before he was unless the weather was really rotten, then I’d wait for a ride. In nice weather I rode my bicycle to and from school.
This doesn’t count, but one day, I rode my nearly Brand-New Yamaha IT465, and for that one day, I was the Baddest Mother-Scratcher on campus!
Brings back a memory from high school. We left for the bus before my father went to work. He drove the one car our family had. One day I was headed up the hill and it was snowy and icy in patches but I had dress shoes and stockings on (what can I say, I was a silly teenager). I slipped and fell on my knees, ripping my stockings and scraping myself.
I hated every day of high school anyway, but this was the last straw. I walked back home and said if you don’t give me a ride, I’m not going to school today. Now, I was a good girl who did everything I was supposed to, and my father was a strict guy who did not like any interruptions to his controlled routine. This was unprecedented and I’m still not sure where I got the nerve! He was so taken aback he just went ahead and gave me a ride to school, no questions asked.
It was just that one day though; I didn’t pull that stunt again. 
I took a public bus from a stop near my house to a stop a few miles away. From there we boarded another public bus. The second bus is a “supplemental bus”. It’s a regular public bus but its route has only one stop, our school. Non-students could ride it but they never did because we filled up most of it and I don’t think anyone else knew that they could get on it. There are essentially express buses in Boston which nobody knows about. The drawbacks are that they only run twice a day, once in the morning and once in the afternoon, the routes are limited (but if you work in the Longwood Medical area it’s ideal), and you have to ride with a lot of teenagers.
Kindergarten through 4th grade: walked, probably four blocks, or about a kilometer, give or take.
5th-grade through part of 8th grade: took a bus, about 2.4 kilometers, give or take.
8th grade, freshman year of high school, part of sophomore year of high school: walked, about a kilometer or so, depending on which route I took.
Rest of high school: took city bus, walked (2.4 kilometers, give or take), got a ride with a friend, drove myself - whichever option was available at the time.
I finally used a pc and could see the poll and vote.
I’m quite surprised walking is leading with such a wide margin.
Neighborhood schools pretty much ended after integration. There was a school a half mile from my house. No one in my neighborhood could register there. We all got bused across town to a school that had been predominantly black. We had the dubious honor of balancing out the ratios. The quality of the school buildings, facilities, and surrounding neighborhood didn’t matter.
No middle school when I went. 1-6, I walked or rode my bicycle. 7-12 (7-8 junior high, but in the same building as 9-12), I rode the bus 7-11 and drove myself in 12th.
I still don’t like the term “middle school.”