This'll be my daughter's 6th year of riding 5 blocks to her grade school. Next year she starts the 5 mile (daily) commute to/from middle school. Her brother has hoed that row before her. Hoping she can talk one (or more) of her friends whose house she will pass into joining her on that commute. Her brother's friends all either took the bus or got chauffeured. I banned my son from accepting rides, but let him choose whether he would bike or take the bus. He always chose to bike, no matter how bad the weather was.