Skip to Content
Streetsblog Los Angeles home
Streetsblog Los Angeles home
Log In

DSCN3834.jpgKids
just want to have fun — and they have a surprising amount of it looking
out of the window of a subway car. (Photo: Sarah Goodyear)

It’s time for another Streetsblog Network user-generated slide show, this one about families riding transit.

A couple of weeks ago, we wrote a post about family-friendly transit
that generated quite a bit of response. There was a lot of talk about
whether or not riding transit with children was "feasible" for most
people. There was discussion of better access for strollers. There were
suggestions about route topology and fare structures — all very worthy
angles on the question.

But the value of family-friendly transit can be viewed in
qualitative terms as well as quantitative ones. It can help to build
the ties between parents and children and their communities — and
that’s what we want to see pictures of. Commenter R. Sullivan summed it up:

[T]ransit is FUN for little kids. When my kids were growing up in
Portland, OR, riding the bus or the light rail was like getting on a
ride at an amusement park, no matter how frequently we rode. Plus, we
talked; we spent time together!… [A]nother great thing about transit is
that it offers teenagers freedom. Teenagers are like buses: adults
malign them, maybe not thinking about how important they are.… Parents
operating strollers can find themselves not even imagining their kids
will be teenagers, who will want to travel on their own someday, even
though their kids will be becoming teenage transit riders with
unbelievable high speed train-like velocity. But transit is a positive
thing for teenagers, and, generally speaking, what is good for
teenagers — accessibility, price control, safety — is good for adults.

Fun and freedom are definitely two of the things that come to mind
when we think about kids and transit. Have any shots that illustrate
this? Send them along to us. You can e-mail me JPEGs at sarah [at]
streetsblog [dot] org, or tag your photos in Flickr with "streetsblog"
and "familytransit". I’ll put together a slide show for your enjoyment,
and to show that taking kids on transit is not only quite feasible in
many places — it’s also enjoyable.

Stay in touch

Sign up for our free newsletter

More from Streetsblog Los Angeles

Friday Briefs: Metro Ridership, CicLAvia, and More

New tools for visualizing Metro transit ridership trends, and CicLAvia will turn 15 next week

October 3, 2025

Metro L.A. River Path Project: Delays and Rising Costs

It will likely take leadership from L.A. City and L.A. County elected officials to get Metro's L.A. River path project out of the limbo it has been trapped in for the last half-decade

October 1, 2025

Last Chance for Input on La Puente’s Housing Element Update

Take the survey: building rule changes allow for faster home development, including on church grounds, commercially zoned land, and to replace lost affordable housing

September 30, 2025
See all posts