At the Bus Stop

By Janny Castillo - BOSS Community Organizer

Kim has been riding the bus for 28 years. She remembers, as a young girl, riding the bus with her mom when the fare was only 25 cents. She is now a 33 year old mom of five living in a section 8 apartment in West Oakland. Kim is not on welfare - she works full time at Rite Aid in San Francisco. Her older children go to different schools in East Oakland, and her mom provides childcare for the younger children. Her children are ages 15, 13, 12, 7, and 3.

She has been a single mother for 15 years. It is a daily struggle for her. One of the hardest things was the challenge of getting on and off the bus. Few people help her climb onto the bus as she struggles with children, groceries and a stroller. Her strollers often break down from the weight of baby supplies and bags of groceries. You can often see her walking down the street with her children beside her, all of them carrying bags of food and supplies home.

When she first began working for Rite Aid, she was living on 23rd Street in East Oakland, she was placed on the swing shift, killer hours. Sleep became a luxury. For a year she had to be at work at 4:00 am in the morning. This meant getting to the bus stop with the children at 2:00 am. She would catch bus #362 to 5th Avenue and International blvd to drop some very sleepy kids off at her mother s house. She left her mother s house at 3:20 am to catch bus #40 to 14th and Broadway, then catch the A bus to San Francisco. Many times, the bus was late, which caused her to be an hour late for work because the A bus only ran once an hour. She taught her older children how to take the bus to school and then to walk home.

In 2001, she moved her family to West Oakland, transportation became a little easier; she now catches one bus to the West Oakland BART station. The cost of bus passes and BART tickets takes a big chunk out of her below poverty level income. She spends $175 a month on getting back and forth to work. It would be about $30 cheaper to take the bus to San Francisco but that would mean an extra 15 minute walk, time she does not have. Four school age children equal $60 a month in youth bus passes. The free bus pass that AC Transit gave high school and middle school age children during the 2002-03 school year made a huge difference for Kim. The extra money went to food and clothing. Before that, she was paying $27 a month per bus pass and $50 for her own.

Lost Little Girl

One time, when she was taking her 5 year old son to school, a guy getting off the bus, knocked down her two year old daughter; if she had not been strapped into her stroller, she would have went flying to the front of the bus.

A truly terrifying incident happened when her older daughter was 5. It was 8:30 am in the morning and she got off the bus early before the rest of her family. It was several stops before Kim noticed she was gone. She jumped off the bus with the rest of the children, stopped a stranger in a car and begged him to take her to the Highland Hospital where other bus riders saw her get off. While Kim was running through the hospital the kind stranger was driving up and down the street looking for the little girl. He came back to Kim telling him he could not find her and that he had to go. Luckily, on his back down the hill, he saw Kim s daughter crying in the arms of a young boy who was trying to help her. He brought her back to Kim who was overwhelmed with gratitude.

In 2003, AC Transit cut bus line #315 in West Oakland. Kim had to walk 6 blocks to San Pablo to catch the 72 downtown, but single mothers adapt. Kim could tell you how many minutes it takes to get her kids to the bus stop; she s memorized store hours and knows which bus to take to Smart & Final downtown and then which bus to take to Pak n Save in Emeryville. She knows how to get around really well but she extremely transit dependent.

She was very upset last year when Governor Schwarzenegger wanted to cut AC Transit s budget. To compensate, AC Transit was proposing cutting out bus passes and transfers and reducing all fares to $1. She called the Governor s assistant telling her how much of a financial burden it would be if buss passes were taken away. You have a good job, she told the assistant. You have a car, you don t understand my situation. I have five kids and I am not on welfare. There are a lot of people out here trying to make it. He calls himself the Terminator. I think he is trying to terminate California!

Kim had done the math at a $1 a ride with no transfers: To get all six of them to her mother's house and her to work would cost $10, getting the older kids back and forth to school: $6. Picking up the younger kids and getting back home: $6. That totals $22 a day and does not include lunch money.

A car would make a real difference in her life. One time Kim saved up to buy one. She bought a used car for cheap from a guy who cleaned the engine and poured heavy weight oil in it to disguise a serious problem, it broke down in 4 months, and she was back on the bus.

Kim's story is not unique. There are thousands of single low-income mothers struggling under the rising cost of transportation, trying to get their kids to school and themselves to work. Kim also struggles to get her son s basketball games, her daughter s soccer practice, doctor s appointments, emergencies that sends her rushing to Children's Hospital when the children are ill. Who is responsible for making sure that her voice and the voice of other moms are heard? Who makes sure that when the budgets are made and money is disbursed that they take into account our community s single working parents? MTC, AC Transit, Governor Schwarzenegger, Us? Answer: All of the above!

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