> Most kids know how to use the public transportation
Not kids from age 3-10, and from then on really just a simple one bus or tram route. There's no point pretending this isn't a big issue. You might say it's worth those people leaving the city to make it happen, but saying it's not life-changing for them is doing them a massive disservice.
I can assure you that somewhere around the 6-7 year mark, it is completely normal for kids to take public transport to go to school. It is where I live, it is in Munich (always fun to end up in the school rush hour sharing the subway with all those little ones riding the train like a pro). It is simply normal for those and nothing even remotely special or weird.
The UK is weird about kids. In the 80s I started travelling as a young kid to school on the bus on my own but it's less common now.
+ After a while of my mum taking me on the train to London I just asked her to send me on my own where I could get picked up at the other end, it was fine.
Next time you are in Munich, take public transport of any kind between 7 and 7:30 in the morning on a normal school day, there are sometimes morw school kids of all ages in a given subway car than adults. Pretty funny to witness, seeing the little ones behaving like all the adult commuters, head phones and all until they meet their friends.
I started taking the bus to school from first grade, as did most of my classmates. I'd usually meet a couple of them on the bus and we used to time to copy homework :)
Not kids from age 3-10, and from then on really just a simple one bus or tram route. There's no point pretending this isn't a big issue. You might say it's worth those people leaving the city to make it happen, but saying it's not life-changing for them is doing them a massive disservice.