Good Lord, I ran around half the town unsupervised as a kid, plus walking to and from school.
I walked or bike (or twice took my Honda 100) to school. Once I took my snowmobile. I went to a school less then 1750 feet from me. I either walked through the woods or jumped the fence at my friend’s house (until his dad put a gate in) or walked down my street turned left and walked into school.