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A Long Ride Home
"Thanks to the new AC Transit routes, I have to take three buses to get
home."
Listen
to this Commentary!
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. I refuse to wait, so a lot of times, I'm forced to walk home.
I remember when AC Transit was simple. 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. 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 know that AC Transit is making changes to deal with their shrinking budget, but it doesn't make any sense to 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.
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 listens to them either. If the riders and drivers were the ones making final decisions, maybe we wouldn’t be in this mess.
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