I think it depends on the area and your teens personality. Both my 16yr old daughter and 15yr old son do not feel confident to use public transport by themselves. I myself grew up in the Netherlands and have used public transport from a far younger age than my own kids

A lot of teens start travelling on public transport alone when they start high school.

I am not a parent of teens, but I began to take public transport from around the age of 12, when I started attending high school. I would suggest they go with someone else first so they don’t feel worried about missing their stop.

My daughter has only ever caught public transport whilst with her friends, so I can’t really answer this question properly.

I’m terrified about my children using public transport on their own for the first time. My daughter is to start high school next year so I guess that may be a good time since I will still have to take my 3 younger children to Primary school and I don’t drive!! I am beside myself with worry about this already though.

My daughter started using public transport completely by herself in Year 8. It was a slow process. In Year 7 she started high school and her school is very far from where we live. Bus for 15 minutes. Then train for an hour. Then walking for 10 minutes. In Year 7 my husband and I managed to be with her for the first 9 months. I traveled with her by bus and train 3 days a week. (Yes, it was tiring and time consuming! ) My husband the other 2. Slowly I got her to take the train alone while I still traveled with her by bus. In particular coming back by bus I was afraid she missed the stop! In Year 8 (at 13 thus) she felt comfortable enough to do everything alone. Beside once forgetting the phone on the bus and another time her clarinet (luckily we found them both again) there was no major drama involved. And our train and bus line is quite safe.

I was terrified of letting my teenage son try buses on his own like you we drove everywhere. However when he was fourteen I let him catch the bus to the local shopping center. He survived but more to the point so did i! As for safety there is always a risk but I had to let him have some responsibility. He doesn’t always take the bus now but every now and again with a mate they catch it.

I remember the first time I let mine go on public transport – we did the research on fares, timetables, I gave them the number to call if they had any problems and also told them to call me. I was so worried and overprotective but my fears were laid to rest. So long as they are travelling to good areas, travel during the day and keep to themselves they will be alright. I would not let mine go to certain areas on their own and definitely no travelling at night on their own.

I let my kids go on the bus at primary school age.
We recently moved and don’t know the area as well yet. My eldest started high school now. So far she has not gone with the bus because it’s not such a good connection (long travel time for relatively short distance) and she doesn’t have a mobile phone yet (which we want to give her for her 13th birthday in July). Hopefully she can go on the bus after her BD.

Each to their own. In daylight and with plenty of people around. I’d go with them a few times to show them how it’s done too.

I was surprised at one outback school I heard that brought a bus load of children into the city and abandoned them, telling them to be at a certain place at a certain time to rejoin the group for the night / go home or something.. they had to work everything out themselves! Amazing but quite realistic exercise if you ever travel as a young adult.

I would send a couple of them together while they’re learning, not by themselves at this stage. My daughter was 16 when she had to take public transport to school, it freaked me out at this age