Streetsblog Los Angeles

Apparently little sister didn't think much of big brother's photo op. Photo: Tim Adams/Transit People

At tomorrow’s meeting of the Metro Board’s Executive Management and Audit Committee, the Board Members will take their first look at the agency’s “free transit to field trips” program first proposed by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and approved by the Board last year. While Metro still hasn’t reached out to local experts on working with schools to get classes to educational destinations via transit, I did reach out to Transit People to help review the program.

Tim Adams gives an overview

…it looks like they’re trying to implement a good program.  I think they’re obviously stalling for time as they try to craft a program structure, and I can hardly blame them for that.  I gather from one of your earlier e-mails that this all caught them unawares, that the program was the mayor’s idea.

The red flag is the “fare media,” referred to on the bottom of page 2 and at other points in the document.  I think this warrants hollering and jumping up and down about, if only to spare hundreds of overworked teachers the misery of schlepping to and from One Gateway to pick up stickers that simply aren’t needed, now that the motion has been passed.

When Adams refers to the staff recommendation to start slow this Spring and grow the program for the next school year.

An initial small-scale demonstration program will be offered in March that limits participation and concentrates on utilizing rail and major bus lines to reach significant cultural and historical destinations. The demonstration program will be used to gauge demand and design an appropriate Field Trip program that can be efficiently managed. The target date for launching the more comprehensive program is August, 201 1

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Clap hands at the start of the #14 line while waiting for the bus to start. Photo (and caption) by Tim Adams/Transit People

At first glance, who wouldn’t favor using Metro to provide free transit passes for off-peak field trips. It seems like a no-brainer.  But, Transit People, a local non-profit that has been helping teachers program these trips for years has been trying to warn Metro and Mayor Villaraigosa that there are a lot of potential pitfalls for such a program.  Thus far, both the Mayor’s office and Metro have tried very hard not to hear Transit People’s warnings, but the non-profit soldiers on.  The Metro Board voted to move forward with the program, before seeing what standards are put in place, last Thursday.

In addition to trying to figure out how Transit People fits into this new world — the group compared itself to a mom and pop hardware store that just got notice that a Home Depot is going up across the streets — Transit People is also putting a lot of their information online and trying to get the attention of decision makers before the free transit pass program goes live.  Yesterday Transit People posted both their training manual for teachers, every teacher that takes children on a Transit People trip goes through a rigorous training program, and a six page guide on how to manage a field trip on transit (as opposed to school buses.)

For example, Transit People warns that there are some classes which shouldn’t be taking transit on field trips, free or not.  Usually, a class’ ability to handle such a trip depends on the teacher, but the class could itself could be the barrier.  Here are some situations that should be avoided.

• Inexperienced or challenged teachers struggling with classroom management issues.
• Experienced teachers working with particularly difficult classes.
• Experienced teachers who can safely manage children, but won’t …
• [Teachers] who will ‘let them run wild’ unless an administrator is watching.

This could raise an interesting problem for Metro: Who at the agency is going to check on teachers and classrooms to make certain that the class is a good fit for a field trip?  And how is the agency going to break it to someone that their class is just too unruly?

As for the guide for teachers, I find the a section towards the end on training teachers and leaders on how to deal with some of the “characters” you might run into on transit to be the most helpful.  Most of Transit People’s students have been younger, so they’ve avoided any problems with gang members and (thankfully) predators.  But how will Metro prepare its teachers for a situation where high school students are approached or harassed by gang members?  How about a harmless, but flamboyant, mentally ill passenger and a group of younger students?

Now we haven’t seen the final program, or the details, of Metro’s free transit for field trips.  If done correctly, it will be a milestone moment for the agency.  But if they don’t, it could be a catastrophe.  One way to maximize their chances for success would be talking to local experts.  In this case, the experts are anxiously awaiting for some sign that Metro is willing to listen.

One child helping another to smile seems like one of the easier challenges teachers could face on a "free transit field trip." Photo: Tim Adams/Transit People

Earlier this month, Mayor Villaraigosa, who also serves on the Metro Board of Directors, proposed that the transit agency give free Metro passes to classrooms for field trips during off-peak hours.  The proposal appears to be a win-win, as students in the “cash-strapped” LAUSD get a chance to travel to some of the many fun and educational places in Los Angeles and get a chance to do so via public transit.

However, Los Angeles happens to be home to experts in taking students on these types of field trips.  Transit People is a local non-profit that has raised the funds for dozens of these sort of trips every year.  While nobody in government has reached out to Transit People about this proposal; their Board of Directors, Tim Adams, Denisse Castillo, Nelly Caywood and Perias Pillay, is offering some free advice to Villaraigosa and Metro to make sure that any field trips that utilize Metro are safe and fun for the participants.

They write:

Mayor Villaraigosa’s proposal could provide tremendous benefit to Los Angeles’ kids, if implemented properly. You could be heroes — heroes! — to the children of our county, and could set an important precedent for other transit agencies nationwide. But if this proposal isn’t properly implemented, our ten years of experience strongly suggest that this nobly-intended program will not turn out well. No one at TransitPeople has ever proposed a ‘carte blanche’ program of this type. Read more…

Transit People trudge through Union Station on our way to Heritage Square.

Yesterday marked the first ever "Transit People" transit race through out Greater Los Angeles.  For anyone not familiar with Transit People, they are a non-profit that provides field trips for students in public schools to some of Los Angeles' most famous destinations such as the Natural History Museum, the Science Center and the Long Beach Aquarium.

Yesterday's race was a fundraiser for the organization as five teams met at locales around the city at 10:00 A.M. where we all received a phone call telling us the finish line was at Heritage Square Park in East Los Angeles.  My team, led by former Metro Board Member Allison Yoh, met at the LaBrea Tar Pits and had 18 members.  Besides myself, Yoh and her family, the rest of our team featured eleven planning graduate students from UCLA, three public school teachers and two extended family members of Transit People founder Tim Adams.

After a brief consultation with the map our team snaked out of the park.  It should be noted that before we reached the bus stop, we were already utilizing three modes of transportation as I coasted on my bike and Devin Yoh was comfortable in his stroller.  Our route would have us take three more modes of transit, Metro Rapid Bus, the Red Line and the Purple Line.

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Don't Worry, These Transit People Aren't You're Competion in April

Transit People, a local non-profit that provides field trips for area grade and high school students, is hosting a city-wide transit race for adults as it's first annual fundraiser.  Given the low cost of attending the event, a modest five dollars, it also seems as though they're goal of exposing young people to transit to people of all ages.  A transit race is a somewhat unique, way of exposing adults to the idea that transit is a safe, viable and dare I say fun way of getting from place to place.  True, it's not a free trip to the Long Beach Aquarium like the kids get, but isn't it worth it to know you'd be helping Transit People take more people with them in future years?

The basics of the race are simple, five competing teams will race from Hollywood, Pasadena, Echo Park, the Wilshire District and a surprise destination using only transit agencies; all to raise money for one of Los Angeles' most unique non-profit agencies.

If you're interested in finding out more or want to sign up go to Transit People's site for the event and check them out.  I'm hoping we can get a Streetsblogger on each team to do a recap later in the week.  If you're interested, either send me an email at damien@streetsblog.org  or leave a note in the comments section.