I grew up in a family of 5, albeit a decade after my siblings.

When I visited London with my parents, we went by train. When I was in the cub scouts, one of my memories was a group trip by train. When I went to middle school (years 4-6), it was easy enough for me to walk alone at the end, though mum did go with me at the start; when I went to secondary school (7-11) there was a bus, though eventually I found I liked the (3 mile!) walk.

Today, I find that my local bus route within Berlin to a nearby mall takes me past 2 schools, and at certain times of day the bus will fill with kids and adult supervisors. Sometimes I see people taking Kinderwagen on the bus.

Walk? Bike? Take the bus? People had kids for years before cars were invented.

This argument does not work when society is build towards roads and using them. I live in the Netherlands in a village, and not using a car is impossible with a few kids. The city is different.

So is your specify built towards roads and using them, or are they too small? Which is it? They are mutually exclusive

A visit to Tokyo does wonders for broadening one's world views :-)