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A Long Ride Home
"Thanks to the new AC Transit routes, I have to take three buses to get
home."
By Jasmenda Brown
It used to take me an hour to get home from school on AC Transit. Now it takes
me two hours.
I go to Street Academy in downtown Oakland, which isn't that far from my house
in East Oakland. But thanks to the new AC Transit routes, I have to take three
buses to get home. The third bus takes forever and is always crowded, so sometimes
I can't even get on. That adds another hour to my commute. I refuse to wait,
so a lot of times, I'm forced to walk home.
Public transportation keeps getting worse and worse. I remember when AC Transit
was simple - I never had to switch buses and pay an extra quarter for a transfer.
Now, I have to pay twice as much bus fare and I can never make it to school
on time. Thankfully, my mom drives me in the morning. But getting home is still
a nightmare. A lot of nights, I get home so late from school my family eats
without me and I either have to go out and get something to eat by myself or
fix my own dinner - if I have enough time to eat. Usually, I only have about
15 minutes to do homework before I need to go to bed.
It's getting to the point that I worry about something happening to one of my
family members while I'm stuck on AC Transit or at a bus stop. It might sound
strange for me to think that way, but right now, my mom is recovering from surgery
and she really needs me around the house. God forbid she falls or tries to pick
something up and I'm not there to help. I understand that AC Transit is making
changes to deal with their shrinking budget, but it doesn't make any sense to
turn around and add some bus lines at the same time that you are cutting others
- like the bus line that used to run right by my house. It just makes life more
confusing.
As a teenager, I have a lot on my mind - school, work and home. I don't need
any more complications added to my list. I'm old enough to drive, but I don't
have the money to have a car with insurance. I used to be proud that I used
public transportation - I wasn't like most people who hate depending on buses.
But now I'm not so sure I can depend on AC Transit.
I wish there were something I could do to have my say when AC Transit makes
route changes. The bus drivers know how I feel, but they say nobody is listening
to them either. If the riders and drivers were the ones making final decisions,
maybe we wouldn’t be in this mess. And maybe I wouldn’t spend so many hours
stranded at bus stops, trying to get home.
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