The Travelin' Grampa
The Travelin’ Grampa Touring the U.S.A. without an automobile Focus on safe, fast, convenient, comfortable, cheap travel, via public transit. Vol. 11, No. 9, September 2018 Photo credit: Sydney Chang, The Daily Californian. AC Transit recently introduced a new 51C bus route to serve the Berkeley campus of the University of California, which also is served by its 51A and 51B buses, two of its busiest routes, with more than 19,000 riders daily, linking Berkeley, Oakland, Alameda and intermediate stops, including four BART subway-elevated rail system stations. September is back to school month for public transit When Grampa was a boy, presenters from the local public transit system came to his elementary school once a year, putting on an interesting, entertaining and educational show, emphasizing how to ride enjoyably and safely on its streetcars and buses. He recalls they cited the perils of boys “hitching rides” on the sides of a trolley car, or of roller skating while holding onto one. Decades afterward, public transit systems seemed to largely ignore kids, focusing instead on daily commuters. Lately, however, as the following pages attest, they are paying attention to kids again. Small wonder. Of the 1.6-million Chicago Transit Authority weekday riders, for example, some 135,000, one in 10, are of school-age. About 107,000, ride on buses and 28,000 on “L” (subway elevated) trains. This seems typical. Nationwide, 10% of bus and 4% of rail riders are age 19 or younger, while 7% are students, says an American Public Transportation Association report.
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