Berkeley Parents Network: Riding the City Bus Alone

Berkeley Parents Network

Riding the City Bus Alone

Berkeley Parents Network > Advice > School-aged Kids > Riding the City Bus Alone

Oct 2000

I reviewed the discussion in UC Parents Advice about kids walking about on their own, crossing the street etc. and there are some good suggestions. What about when it is ok for kids to use AC Transit? I'm interested in parents guidelines/ advice about waiting for the bus, transfers, walking from the stop to home, how old were they, etc.

I have a girl. She is too young right now, but wants and will want and deserve the freedom to travel through our community. I am trying to figure out when this will be reasonably safe for her to do. I am particularly concerned about middle school and her getting to Willard from North Berkeley safely since there are no school busses that make this run and Willard would be her designated school. Do 6th graders walk up Telegraph and across campus to get home??? Do 6th graders transfer busses in downtown Berkeley to get home?? What have you done? Anonymous

In response to riding the bus to Willard. We are also in the Willard district and live in North Berkeley within walking distance of King. (It's of course a completely gerrymandered zone having nothing to do with reality.) When my daughter entered 6th grade, no one from our area took the bus to Willard. There are no direct AC Transit routes. No one transferred downtown or walked down Telegraph. I think 10 is too young to ask kids to go through those areas and stand around downtown by themselves every day. There are carpools and you could probably contact Willard about that. (You could also contact school board members about instituting a bus for your area, since they have artificially created zones that force your child to go to a school across town.) Now that's she's 12, she does take the bus around town, and manages fine. --Anonymous

We let our son start to ride the but in the 8th grade. We had him take the bus near his school and not go near downtown Berkeley or Telegraph. I thought that 8th grade was an appropriate age but I know of several parents who have their children ride the bus at much younger ages. For us, 8th grade was just right. The summer entering high school he began taking the bus to go to activities and to visit friends. It has worked well so far and he has been responsible. Julie

You have to gauge your own child's readiness for Willard and bus travel. However, If Willard is cross town for you I would throw a fit about sending your child down Telegraph to get there, and insist that she be able to go to school in her neighborhood. If enough parents fought it, the community could get this changed. My son learned to buy pot on the avenue within weeks of starting Willard, because yes, Indeed, even with a bus pass, he preferred to walk home with his friends and wanted to be cool of course, and it began a trying period in his scholastic career to say the least. My son was a top student in elementary school and it crashed a bunch in Jr. High. Willard may have academic potential, but it offered more temptation than he was ready for. Anonymous

My daughter (now a BHS sophmore) took the #64 bus to Willard almost daily for two years without any incident. She was a 7th grader to start, however, so your experience may be slightly different.

A week or so before the start of school we took the bus together (I had her "lead the way" to the bus stop, etc. to make sure she knew where she was going-please don't go with her during school if you want to remain on speaking terms!). Get your child a monthly bus pass so she doesn't have to carry a pile of exact change every day. There were a group of kids who took the bus every day (some who transferred from the #8). The bus had the same driver for several months in a row, and s/he got to know the kids. Many of the other bus riders were on their way to Merritt. On the way home, she could take the same bus or one that let her off downtown (she'd walk from there, but other kids did transfer), along with a very large number of other Willard students.

Since I knew the bus schedule, I'd know about when to expect her, and she knew to call (or let me know in advance) if she wanted to go to a friend's house or stop on the way home at a store. There are lots of kids taking the bus during school hours, and it won't be a scary experience if your child is comfortable knowing where she is going. I do advise your going with her on the route once so you will know exactly what her path will be and, if necessary, discuss with her any concerns you have about it. Riding the bus to school is a good step into independence without sacrificing either your child's safety or your peace of mind. Good luck! Ellen

Although they were able to walk to school up to the 9th grade, my kids were both riding AC Transit by themselves starting in the 6th grade. They nearly always ride the 51, which I consider pretty OK. They rode it from South Berkeley to the Marina for sailing lessons in the summer, together and alone, and from South Berkeley to north shattuck Ave. for summer camp. They also were riding BART by themselves by the time they were 12 or 13, either walking or taking the bus to the station. If they ever had any problems, they didn't tell me about them! Anonymous

I want to respond to this parent's concern about allowing her daughter to ride AC Transit alone. It brought back many memories of my young life riding San Francisco public buses/streetcars in the '60's. I was 8 years old when I began riding on buses alone (mostly with friends to movies). Along the way, I encountered some bad situations: fights on buses, perverts pawing young girls (including me on one occasion when I was 15), stinky people, crazed people who get in your face. Good stuff that happened: I sold all my Girl Scout cookies on one bus ride, learned how to transfer from bus to bus and to get anywhere in SF, rode practically for free, became friends with, and learned to talk with, some really "hip" and nice bus drivers, learned to become savvy about where to sit to avoid trouble, became savvy about what parts of the City to avoid, became savvy about gauging the "mood of the bus" and when to sit close to the front of the bus near the bus driver. I would even use the buses, as a teenager, to hang out in and ride all night with friends and talk about our family problems, our lives, really intimate stuff, etc. (those were days when bus drivers didn't mind having you ride back and forth from one end of the line to the other all night). All this experience made me feel very independent and capable at a young age. From 5th grade, this was my only way to get to school every day since my mother could not or would not drive me. With this all said, I believe riding AC Transit today is not that different from the days I rode in SF during the '60's--can be dangerous, can be quite an adventure, and public transportation should be used by everyone--it's the public and egalitarian thing to do--no chauffering by parents all the time. This is a way to gauge a child's independence and ability to cope in unknown situations. I think junior high is a good time to start giving your daughter a sense of independence. Begin with small trips where you know exactly what bus your daughter's riding and the to/from of the trip. Pick-up bus schedules at the Berkeley TRIP store on Center Street (also has BART tickets). If she's comfortable taking the bus to school, let her ride every day to establish a schedule and she'll end up recognizing the same people who ride at the same time and the same drivers. Happy Riding. --jahlee

Our daughter, out of necessity, finally started taking the bus this past summer right after graduation from middle school. We needed her to get from one of her parent's houses to the other one so that she could be taken by that parent to her violin lesson. She was reluctant but she did it. When I picked her up after the lesson she said she felt so independent. I was thrilled. I'd been waiting for this but never pushed it. Now as a BHS freshman she has a bus pass and is on AC Transit 5 days a week including getting to the violin lesson on her own. (She gets picked up afterward, though.) I'm not sure any of us would have been ready for her to do this any earlier than 8th grade. It'll probably be just fine in a couple of years but 6th grade seems young. Although, when our daughter was at Willard there were lots of kids getting off and on the buses out front, so I guess it all depends on your kid and their ability to navigate. Good luck. Anonymous

I posed the question to Miriam Hawley, our elected representative to AC Transit. Her response is below. My kids, 14 and 17 both ride AC Transit. My 17 yr old son knows all the local routes and has had a monthly pass for quite a while. My daughter, now a freshman at BHS is a little more cautious, so I've let her take the lead based on her comfort level. Funny tho' how the comfort level adjusts to the need for both independence and convenience. She gets an extra 10 or 15 minutes sleep if she takes the bus (vs. walking) and is now taking the bus to school regularly. I take the bus occasionally and generally feel quite comfortable and safe. I'd say, if your daughter feels confident then she will exude that confidence and be fine. I think that the ability to take public transportation is one of the things that makes our Berkeley kids different from suburban kids---it offers a combination of freedom, independence, and street smarts that sets them apart in a positive way. Sally

Here's Miriam Hawley's response...

Thanks for your note. I've asked AC staff for some crime-on-bus statistics. In fact, just this morning I spoke to Bob Hughes, our safety guy, to nudge him into action. I forwarded your note to him for his comments. He may get back to you directly with quotable information. Meanwhile, I can assure you that crime is rare on buses. When something does happen, it's almost invariably the bus driver who gets attacked or threatened.

My own kids rode the bus from the time they were in about 5th grade, and I can't recall a single incident. Both they and I felt it was a big step toward their independence, and they loved the fact that they could get around without having to wait for someone to drive them. Our Deputy General Manager who lives in Berkeley says his children, now 12 and 15, ride AC Transit buses regularly and have been bus riders since the upper elementary school grades, often transferring downtown from one bus to another. He recalls no incidents on buses. Once his son felt harassed by someone at a bus stop, but this was at Center and Shattuck where the crowds would have been a protection had he needed it. But it turned out to be more annoying than threatening. Miriam

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