Need a ride to class? Muni continues to be a popular option for many students.
More San Francisco kids and teenagers are choosing to bike or take public transit to school.
According to a new survey of public school students from our Safe Routes to School Program:
- The number of students who bike has doubled over the last few years
- More than half of high schoolers take transit to class
- Single-family car rides have fallen to less than half of all school trips after going up during the pandemic
“These numbers show us that our efforts to provide more options for kids to get to and from school are working,” said SFMTA Transportation Planner Ben Frazier. Frazier serves as the coordinator for the San Francisco Safe Routes to School Program. “And our overall efforts to make it safer to walk, bike, roll and take transit also are working.”
We conduct our Student Travel Tally survey every two years and ask kids in kindergarten, 5th grade, 6th grade and 9th grade how they get to class. We talked with more than 10,000 students at 95 San Francisco Unified schools this time around.
Kids hop on two wheels for a bike caravan during our annual Bike & Roll to School Week event.
Starting the school day on big kid bikes
Biking to school is now more popular than it was before the pandemic. This is especially true for young students.
The number of students who get to school by bike has doubled since 2019. Overall, 2% of school kids now bike to class. And kids in kindergarten are six times more likely to bike than older students.
This increase comes as we continue our work to make biking safer.
- Protected bike lanes and our Slow Streets Program can help people of all ages feel confident about biking.
- San Francisco also is the first major city in California to put 15 mph zones in place at all eligible schools.
Frazier often hears from families who love to bike to school. “They tell me that it helps get children in the right mental state to learn, and it brightens up parents’ days,” he said. “So, I think this choice is a win-win for everyone.”
Tex Dworkin and her daughter Georgia joined the Bike & Roll to School Week event at Dolores Huerta Elementary School last year. “I’ve been a bike commuter for years,” Dworkin told us during an interview for our Taken with Transportation podcast. “And it’s really awesome to be able to share this experience with my daughter.”
Getting to school can be as easy as boarding a bus in San Francisco.
Transit is the ride of choice for San Francisco high schoolers
The independence of public transit is increasingly appealing to high school students. The Student Travel Tally Survey shows that the older a student is, the more likely they are to take transit.
- More than half of 9th graders (55%) take public transit to school.
- About a third of 6th (33%) graders get to school on transit.
- Transit accounts for just over a quarter (27%) of the total school trips.
Our Free Muni for Youth program helps make public transit accessible to students. And we offer extra “School Tripper” bus runs during the academic year. These help with crowding as kids head home.
And Muni can be fun for young people. Wendy Yu is a student at University High School in Pacific Heights and a member of our Youth Transportation Advisory Board. She was not part of the Travel Tally but takes Muni to school from her home downtown.
“I ride the 1 California, and that route weaves through very different neighborhoods of San Francisco.” Yu said. “So, I get to explore all these diverse places that I would not have come to know, otherwise.”
Making trips safer, however you get to school
Our Safe Routes to School Program helps families choose whatever way is best for them when it comes to getting students to school. Through education and outreach, we encourage them to try one of the Four Fun Ways to get to class:
- Biking
- Walking
- Taking Transit
- Carpooling
We work with SFUSD, Walk SF, the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition, San Francisco Transit Riders and the YMCA’s Y-Bike program to support families’ school trips.
You can learn more about the program at the Safe Routes to School website. And you can check out “A Safe and Fun School Commute,” our podcast episode about Safe Routes to School. You’ll find it on our podcast webpage (SFMTA.com/Podcast), our YouTube channel or wherever you listen.