Transit Stories: Will Tung

(He/Him) | Philadelphia, PA My name is William Tung or Will, which I usually go by. I live in Southwest Philadelphia in a neighborhood called Kingsessing and it is mostly serviced by trolleys. I have a trolley line that passes a block away from my house and goes straight to Center City.  I occasionally use […]

Transit Stories: Tejas Kotak

Atlanta, GA (If this is ever read out loud, quick pronunciation guide for my name. Tejas like the word “advantageous.”) My name is Tejas Kotak and I live in Atlanta, Georgia. I have relied on public transportation for over 8 years. I don’t own a car, so when I choose where to live, having reliable […]

Transit Stories: Tatyana Atkinson

Cleveland, OH My name is Tatyana Atkinson, and I am a non-driver. I never learned how to drive. I grew up in Atlanta and Washington DC, where public transportation supported me well enough not to need to learn the skill. Upon moving to Ohio as a student at John Carroll University in 2015, I immediately […]

Transit Stories: Stacey Randecker

San Francisco, CA In the Bay Area, any loss of transit service threatens to upend my life, and my family’s life. I commute on Caltrain and my two teenage children ride San Francisco (SFMTA) buses to school. Without a stable source of guaranteed funding, I know both services are always at risk, and will never […]

Transit Stories: Sonny Williams

Cincinnati, OH I’m a 73-year-old disabled veteran with PTSD. After spending some time in different places around the country, I came back to Cincinnati. I use the Metro, our bus system, to get to my VA appointments, the grocery store, and the bank. I move around with a cane.  Even with the pandemic, I’ve never […]

Transit Stories: Sohna Jeanty

(She/Her) | Atlanta, Georgia I’m originally from DC. When I moved to Georgia, I had a car. I soon gave up the car because driving in the city was a bit much. Public transit was my other option, but the transit system took some getting used to. I’ve had good experiences and not-so-good ones. The […]

Transit Stories: Shalese Ford

Boston, Massachusetts I grew up in Boston but went to college in Ohio, and when I went to Cleveland or Columbus I could see how broken their transit was. Anything I said about MBTA (Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority), it was like, I take it all back.  But there’s still plenty to improve here. I’d majored […]

Transit Stories: Rose Driscoll

Cleveland, OH I love taking the bus. I love not having to worry about parking or pay for the upkeep of a car. I love putting on my headphones and using the time that I would spend driving to text my friends and family. But I also rely on the bus for transportation because I […]

Transit Stories: Paolo Solorzano

Aurora, CO I started going to RTD (Regional Transportation District) board meetings back in 2017. I wanted to know why bus service had gotten so unreliable, and I wanted them to fix it. At the time, I was trying very hard to get my life back on track. I’d gone through a period of mental […]

Transit Stories: Mary Rachel Taylor

Chicago, Illinois I’m grateful to have public transportation. I grew up in a town in North Carolina in a town that only had one public bus, but it was very important for me growing up, so living in a place with transit is important to me. When I was thinking of moving to a new […]