Transportation has always been a big thing for schools. Even before entering high school, a lot of students rode on paid buses that took them to and from school. When freshmen first begin at South they are given their ID along with a bus card, meaning they’ll now have to rely on Public Transportation to get them from place to place. But Sometimes it’s not as easy or fun as it seems. Students who don’t rely on Public Transportation, and don’t have access to their own vehicle, either get picked up by their parents or walk home if it’s not too far. Each mode of transportation comes with its own pros and cons. 

The most common mode of transportation is the Metro Transit bus. Rita Lopez, as someone who has taken the bus since she was a freshman, was asked about her personal experience in riding on the bus. The most pressing questions were about safety on the buses.

Rita says that she doesn’t feel safe or comfortable on the bus because there tend to be a lot of weird people who are drunk or high and try to talk to her or other students. “A lot of time on the bus people you don’t know will try to speak to you.” She says this happens a lot because she has to take two buses to get to school and two buses to get home. She continues by saying that despite most of the issues, it has gotten slightly easier to use the bus because the time you need to be at the stops gets ingrained in your head.. If she could change one thing about bus transportation, she said that she would add more security around stops.  

Sophomore Muniratu Shiba was asked about her experience on public transportation too. She says that she doesn’t feel as comfortable as she thinks she should be, because a lot of stuff can happen while on the bus. Muniratu has been taking the bus, in her words “since forever” because her parents don’t drive and her brother is in college. And she feels that it is easiest to take the bus in the summertime because there is no snow and it’s easier to get where you have to go. Muniratu says that she wishes that buses could have more than one bus coming at a time. She says this is because sometimes when she misses a bus, it takes 15-30 minutes for the next one to come and it’s just too long a wait for that. 

Muniratu shared her scariest experience using Metro Transit. She says once, while she was on the bus texting her cousin an obviously drunk man sat near her and began speaking to her. She had her airpods in so she paid no attention to what he was saying. The man reached up and Muniratu thought he was pulling on the yellow cords above the seat but he had actually been grabbing her. She jumped up out of her seat and got off the bus. 

These student’s stories say a lot about the safety and transportation for South students.  Students aren’t 100% safe going from home to school. Currently there’s nothing in place to ensure their safety against these incidents. Many students at South take the bus and it’s a given that there have been so many more experiences on Metro Transit. It’s extremely important that the South High administration take this into consideration and think of ways for getting more safety and security on public transportation