Kids & Public Transit - Page 2

[waiflywaif]

I started doing it at 10. I might let my DD do it at 10 too, but I would feel better if she was with a friend or a group of friends.

[Polliwog]

Originally Posted by Smithie

Until my children have height and size and defensive skillset giving them a reasonable chance to fight off a physical attack from a mentally ill adult, they will not ride public transportation alone. I rode SEPTA almost every day for two years straight in Philly, and it boggles my mind that a nine or ten year old would be left to cope with that situation solo.

Really? I used public transportation in Philly (trains, subway, and buses) for six years and thought it was pretty safe and relatively easy (route dependent of course.) I frequently saw unaccompanied tweens and rarely saw an issue.

I live in a smallish college town with free bus transportation. I think at 10 or 11, my son would be able to use it pretty independently.

[cschick]

Originally Posted by ChetMC

At what age did you (or would you) let your child take public transit without an adult?

Where I live the city will give out city bus passes to kids in grade four. Not all schools, but I know that they do it for the performing and visual arts school. I believe that in Toronto they start giving city transit passes to some kids in grade six instead of having a school bus for them.

The age cutoff is October 1st in Montreal. Kids in grade 4 are nine and the oldest ones will turn ten in October. In Toronto the cutoff is later. Kids in grade 6 could be ten at the start of year and might not turn eleven until Christmas.

If you think it depends on the kid, or the route, what criteria would be necessary for you to let your child use transit alone?

I started taking CTA buses myself/with friends probably about age 7 or 8 (I don't quite remember).

Once when I was whining that I wanted to go somewhere, my mom told me that she was perfectly happy with my walking my butt over to Metra and going downtown, myself I think I was in 5th grade (and since we were way out in the suburbs at that time, it would have been an hour on Metra). I didn't actually take her seriously about taking Metra myself until 8th grade though.

[lrpurro]

SF and East Bay

I started letting my son "plan" and "navigate" all of our public transit journeys when he was about 11. A few times we even got "lost" and I was no help and he got us back on track and got us home!

After doing that for about 6 months, he graduated to planning and carrying out his own solo trips but he needed to communicate with me right before departing and immediately upon arriving to his destination.

By age 12 he was completely competent with ANY type of public transit travel including multiple transfers, bus to rail to train to plane, whatever!

This age/time frame seemed pretty common among families with same age kids.


Lisa

[CrazyCatLady]

And taking the bus as a kid/teen I did encounter hairy situations from time to time. Getting lost (this happened a lot actually lol), weird people, older teens wanting to try and pick a fight, an occasional pervert or two, getting sick while out, etc. And I'm glad I had the chance to encounter those situations and learn how to handle them appropriately. By the time I was 18 I felt more than ready to be an "adult", and I thank my parents and some of their more "free range" ideals for that. And all this was even before cell phones happened.

Now a days with cell phones being so handy/common, I feel 100x more safe letting my dd roam the cities when she's ready to.

And she'll probably just do the same goofy stuff that we did as kids. Like hanging out in front of the local coffee shop or target with friends (and feeling so cool about it ).

[Callimom]

I let my oldest start taking transit at age 9.
I now have two other 9 year olds and they can travel with him, but they aren't ready to do it on their own yet - they are just different kids - but they travel using transit with my oldest regularly.
My youngest is 7 and I forsee her being able to take it around the age of 9 on her own.

When I was 12 I was doing intercity travel on my own with my sisters including transfers in Toronto. My oldest is twelve and he wants to head into toronto on his own one day to visit the ROM. I think he's probably okay to manage that but we may do a test run first.

Karen

[GuildJenn]

I grew up in Toronto and started taking transit with one transfer to get to grade one. But those were slightly different times - and my mum may have been nuts.

Although it depends on the child I think around 9 is reasonable for most. I would do the route a few times and also the kid has to know how to get help (use a pay phone or have a cell phone, know key phone numbers and addresses, etc.) And there's always Gavin de Becker's rule of 12 to think about.

[ancoda]

Around age 10-11 seems about right to me. It would really matter on how big my city was, and the maturity level of the child.

[nextcommercial]

I grew up in Chicago and St Louis. I was able to move around both cities through public transit by third grade. It was actually less stressful to me than crossing a busy street.

But, I think the child has to KNOW the city. He or she must be able to understand the streets and which direction to go. If you don't trust that your child wouldn't know how to get back to the right part of town (in case he or she got on the wrong train or bus) then I would wait until you feel sure they can do it.