The People on the Bus

A brief visit to 2013 via the Way Back Machine this morning.

Just had a brilliant, brilliant idea. CA and hocogov need to partner on a camp/recreational course for kids where all activities involve learning how to use Howard County Transit to get to the activity site. You want to change attitudes about public Transit? Kid + fun + knowledgeable, adequate supervision.

When I posted this on Facebook back in 2013 I got a variety of responses. Most were positive but one was adamantly negative. I’ll admit I was surprised, and rather deflated. In fact, that one rejection lingered so vividly in my mind that I was surprised today when I went back to look that there were a number of quite positive responses.

It’s funny how that works.

I’m bringing it up today because of this:

Tweet posted on May 15, 2023 by RTA, Regional Transportation Agency

Hey, everyone! We just finished a presentation to students at Atholton High School in Columbia, MD, on how to ride the bus like a pro! We thank the students for their attention and questions and hope they had fun and learned something new.

Now I am curious. Does RTA make similar presentations in all the high schools? Or was there a specific request from Atholton?  For that matter, do they ever go to middle schools? I’ll need to reach out to them and find out more. 

Today’s young people in Columbia/HoCo have had many experiences which were completely unavailable when I was growing up. On the other hand, one way that I experienced more autonomy than they do is that I lived in a place where I could easily take the bus. I walked to the corner, waited for the bus, and hopped on. The bus took me downtown to shop, see a movie, meet up with friends, or hang out at the church’s teen community center. 

Still, my parents were often bemoaning the decline of public transportation. They grew up in a world where taking the streetcar and the bus were regular occurrences, and longer distance travel was provided by train. “Really good train service,” my mother was fond of emphasizing. She never got over the decline of streetcars and rail service. 

My parents used public transit a lot, I used it some, my children very little, if at all. Yet there are compelling environmental reasons to use public transit instead of individual automobiles. What would we need to do to turn the use of public transit in the other direction?

I’ve written a lot here over the years on this particular topic. In 2021, when County Executive Calvin Ball announced that middle and high school students would receive bus passes for free transit, I was thrilled. If you want to encourage people to try something new, it helps to start opening those doors and making those invitations while they are still young and their brains (and attitudes) are still flexible.

That’s why I was intrigued by RTA’s visit to Atholton. Helping young people connect with public transit is a first step in offering them real life experiences. What’s next? Perhaps hopping on a bus that takes you where you want to go. After that? Who knows, maybe enthusiastic advocacy for public transit.

You can learn more about RTA and upcoming route changes at their website.