As Xennial father of 2 kids - cars happened, when I was growing up in 80s families had at max 1 car, some didn't have car at all or used it rarely only on weekends, now many families have two cars, which they use on daily basis + same thing happened in companies which could do without cars back then. Back then I was riding bike 8-9yo to the other side of the town 2-3km and played there in forest or next to river with friend who lived there.

My 2nd grader started to walk home from school (~1km, two busier roads, one without crossing and bunch of smaller roads without crossing) by himself couple of weeks ago and he is still rarity in his class. Last week his class teacher refused to let him go without special paper despite he had no problem to leave from (after) school club for weeks already, where I specifically written he can go home by himself whole school year to not write paper almost every day. My mistake for writing in initial registration I am picking him up, now with younger kid joining the school she will have straight from 1st grade written in official documents she can go by herself and it will be only up to our agreement how she will get home without dumb teachers stopping us.