Little people are wonderful, but when a person is still at a size where they are completely portable and can be tucked under an arm and never seen again, I prefer to have a rough idea of where my kid is.
Also, my son, also 9, often thinks he knows where he is, but it turns out he has no clue. I’ve followed his directions to places and never gotten there.
And, on last point, the subway may be a terrific way to get around, but, if you’re as paranoid as I am, there’s a constant sense that bad things are always hovering just out of your peripheral vision.

I think it’s fine. I started taking the public bus alone to school at age 8 and by 9 I was on the subway (we’re talking about a time when the city wasn’t as safe as it is now, too). Albeit, it was only to and from school, but it sounds like this wasn’t much more than that, and the mum knew what was going on etc. Do I think that was a little young? In retrospect maybe, but it did give me a sense of confidence and independence. I also didn’t have much of a choice. Both my parents worked full time, I didn’t have a nanny or a driver, and for some reason the private school buses had been ruled out, yada yada yada. I thank them now even though I think I was a bit nervous back then. A parent knows his/her child better than anyone else (at least before the wee one is a teen), so maybe we should leave this kind of thing to the discretion of each individual parents and his/her child. I would say, too, that I probably have no idea what I’m talking about (YET) since I don’t have one of my own (YET).

I worry that I worry too much about allowing my son to go out on his own. We live in Chicago, not NYC, but our neighborhood has its share of problems. I think a lot about how I used to walk to school by myself when I was seven and how, although it was suburbia not the city, there must have been times that I was in danger of which I was not fully aware. And yet, I made it to school and back safely, even on the day when that strange man drove up in his red convertible and asked my friend and me whether we wanted a ride. (We ran.) Why should I not give my son the same freedom and self-confidence that my mother allowed me? So, I’m really torn on this one.

Being that my son is only two, the very idea of letting him out of my sight even for a millisecond scares me to death. But having grown up in NYC I remember it being fairly common for kids to hop on the bus or the subway for school. As emmabliss said, there wasn’t much of a choice. I agree that listening to your child’s desires and respecting them are two of the key ingredients in excellent parenting but to do that you also need to know your child and have confidence in the way you raised them. I love that this mom had a plan and that it ended in 45 mins. If my son were armed with some money for a cab and a cell phone and swore to text me every ten mins for an hour I’d probably let him do it. Sadly, bad things happen to all people all of the time and we can’t protect our children forever.

Having grown up in NYC I think this is a really bad idea. NYC is not a safe venue for a 9 y/o to explore alone.

It’s fine. I walked to school and back and never had any trouble. If I’d saved from my pocket money sometimes I’d treat myself to a bus halfway there. Paedophile attacks are vanishingly rare. The chance of anything happening to her kid is effectively zero.
Let’s not raise a generation of people who get lost because they never developed the skill of finding their way, who never developed the habit of independent thought, who are scared of everyone.

A great site developing valuable discussions. As a dad in Australia I was a resounding *no* from American parents as the US seems to get such bad press. In Oz though we sadly have our share of nutters and worse that would preclude me now letting our kids take a major day trip on public transport alone tho they will be doing local bus transport soon.
Our English friends comment tho that London in areas seems out of control with knife crime etc in public spaces. Sad.