Muni Kids

Five years ago, the SFMTA expanded San Francisco's Free Muni for Youth program to include all young people 18 and under. Whether a child or teen lives in SF or is visiting, they can use the city’s public transit system free of charge. All they have to do is climb on board and enjoy the ride. 

In this episode, we cover the history of Free Muni for Youth and talk to some young people who benefit from the program. The episode also features SFMTA Revenue, Development and Reporting Director Diana Hammons, San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu and City Supervisor Myrna Melgar.

Transcript

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MELISSA CULROSS, HOST: Five years ago, Muni, San Francisco’s public transit system, became free to ride for ALL kids and teens ages 18 and younger.

ZULEYMA SARCENO, SF TEENAGER: Some of my favorite lines are the T and the L just because that’s what I use to get to and from school every day.

MELISSA: Welcome to Taken with Transportation, the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency’s official podcast. I’m your host, Melissa Culross, and for kids in this beautiful city by the bay, public transit often becomes a way of life early on. Just ask 9-year-old Frances, who lives in Cathedral Hill and is talking with us about Muni.

FRANCES: I like that you can get almost anywhere. There’s so many stops, you don’t even have to really, like, walk in between much. 
 
 MELISSA: And is there any place on the bus that you’ve been that you’ve been that was, like, super duper fun?
 
 FRANCES: Union Square. We took the bus to Union Square, and then we took the T or something. And we got the Caltrain.

MELISSA: Frances’ mother, Stephanie, explains that the Union Square trip was part of a recent mini vacation.

STEPHANIE: It was, like, the middle of February, and all we wanted to do was be at a hotel with a pool. So, we found a pool, or a hotel that wasn’t too expensive by the airport. And we decided we were gonna take Muni there because the parking was, like, $45 a night. And we’re like, “Ah, let’s take public transit.” So, we took the bus to Caltrain. We walked a little bit. And we had a great time. It was just a fun family adventure that didn’t need a car.

MELISSA: And the fact that Frances and her 5-year-old sister Rose ride Muni for free makes mom’s life a little easier.

STEPHANIE: When you have kids, there’s a lot of logistical questions of how to get people from here to there. And one of things I really appreciate about Muni is that we can all get on the Muni. Everyone’s entertained. We can get where we need to go, and I don’t have to worry about anyone’s fare except mine.

MELISSA: Stephanie says she and her husband are thrilled to be raising young Muni riders. Frances and Rose certainly are on board.

FRANCES AND ROSE: We love Muni!

MELISSA: Now, it’s been five years since we started allowing all young people to ride Muni for free, but some kids have been riding without having to pay for longer.

DIANA HAMMONS, SFMTA REVENUE, DEVELOPMENT AND REPORTING DIRECTOR: Our Free Muni for Youth program is about 13 years old. It was implemented in March 2013. 

MELISSA: That’s Diana Hammons. She’s the SFMTA’s director of revenue, development and reporting. She says the program was a little different when it first began.

DIANA: It was limited to San Francisco youth residents that were low or moderate income. So, that would be 100% of Bay Area median income. Students, their parents or guardian had to fill out an application and submit proof of age. In terms of income eligibility, that was self-certification, trying to think about not creating too many barriers and making it too difficult for people to apply. And then once they did, they would get a Clipper card in the mail, loaded with their youth pass. 

MELISSA: The program then evolved over the years.

DIANA: The first change that was made about six months after implementation, we expanded it to include English-learner and special education students at the school district. Um, that includes students up to 21 years of age. Then in 2015, as a regional effort just to streamline the fare policy of Bay Area transit agencies, every transit agency increased their youth fare to be eligible through the age of 18. So, at that point, 18-year-olds, many of whom are still in school as seniors, could have that benefit through their school-age years. And also at that time, we expanded the program for people with disabilities and seniors. So, again expanding the, the breadth of our free and discount programs to additional groups of transit riders. And then in 2021, based on a lot of community feedback, stakeholder groups, the program was extended to include all youth, regardless of income and regardless of residency.

MELISSA: These days, those special Clipper cards young people from families with low to moderate incomes would receive in the mail are a thing of the past.

DIANA: The most common question that we receive, and people are pleasantly surprised at the answer, is that no, you don’t need to get a pass. You don’t need to fill out an application. You can just simply get on the vehicle and ride for free.

MELISSA: There is one exception. Cable cars aren’t included in the overall Free Muni for Youth program. But kids ages four and under can ride for free, and so can some other young people between the ages of five and 18. For those riders, there is still an application process.

DIANA: When we expanded the program, we knew that there were youth who, maybe they live in Nob Hill or in Russian Hill, and the cable car line is actually a preferred mode of transit for them. And so, we wanted to make sure that we took care of those, uh, students who may be travelling on the cable car routes, So, we do have an option where you can apply for a free Muni for Youth clipper card that does include cable car access that is only for San Francisco residents.

MELISSA: That’s Free Muni for Youth today, but let’s go back to the beginning for a moment. The SFMTA didn’t establish this program alone. San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu was president of the Board of Supervisors when Free Muni for Youth was first implemented. We’ve caught up with him in his office to discuss City’s Hall’s involvement in getting the program going.

DAVID CHIU, SAN FRANCISCO CITY ATTORNEY: Maybe I’ll start by saying that for my first 20 years of living in San Francisco, I didn’t own a car. And so, every day I was on Muni. It’s how I go to...get around town. And, uh, it has always been fundamental to my life, and it’s such an incredible institution in our city. It’s obviously integrated in every aspect of San Francisco. It’s really fundamental to who we are as a city. But a few years before we actually launched the first pilot, we’d been having this discussion around how we both get more folks on Muni but a plight that was facing kids. And what was happening around that time was the San Francisco Unified School budget was really, really stretched. And so, they cut a lot of school buses. And so, kids had to rely on Muni, but at the same time, the Fast Pass for Youth amounts were going up in a significant way. So, this is really putting a crunch on kids and their ability to access Muni. And initially, a number of us supported a resolution to say we ought to consider this idea of providing free access to Muni by young people. But obviously, that requires money. And so, initially in 2013, we piloted a program for low income and moderate income youth. I really wanna thank my colleagues at the time for moving this forward. We got this done. There was a 16-month pilot. We had 20,000 young people who signed up. It was wildly successful, but it needed money. And it was during a time period, again, of significant budget pressures. So, we just didn’t have these monies. And so, in 2014, I worked with Mayor Lee. We spoke to Google to ask them to help with the cost of this program. And they decided to donate almost $7 million. It’s one of the largest donations by any corporate partner in the city in the history of our city. And it is what allowed us at that time to make that first pilot program permanent, and that was in 2014. And this, really, I think it’s just an amazing program for San Francisco and for young people.

MELISSA: We ask Chiu to tell us a little more about that donation.

DAVID: It was around the time when a number of Silicon Valley companies were asking the city for permission to allow for shuttle buses, commuter shuttle buses. Which on their own, I think everyone understands it’s much better to have thousands of employees, rather than driving their own private cars, to be all going up and down 101 and 280 in a shuttle bus. But it became a bit of a symbol of frustration that a lot of members of the public had. And so, that was the context within which Google decided to make this philanthropic contribution to the city, which we all appreciated. I think everyone across the political spectrum saw that gesture for what it was: to really move forward this pilot. Don’t know what would have happened to the program had we not received that infusion. But it really proved the point that you could help an entire generation of young people and do it in a way that’s better for the environment, that’s affordable, that involves less congestion. 

MELISSA: All these years later, Chiu still appreciates the benefits of the program.

DAVID: Muni itself is fundamentally important. And we want to make sure that everyone who can ride, rides. And so, for us to be able to say to young people, “Until you graduate, we’re gonna give you access to our transit system and just let you ride everywhere and get to know the systems. It’s amazing now that there are young people who love to geek out on how much they know about our transit system. You know for, for these kids, it’s about providing them access to opportunity, to education, to community. But in the long run, it’s about building support for a system that makes our city affordable, makes our city clean, makes our city more livable, reduces congestion on our streets.

MELISSA: We’ve mentioned a couple of times now that we opened Free Muni for Youth up to all young people, regardless of income or where they live, in 2021. City Supervisor Myrna Melgar played a part in that expansion.

MYRNA MELGAR< SF CITY SUPERVISOR: So, when I first became a member of the Board of Supervisors…who brought this to my attention that we needed to update the program, looking at going back to school in person, was actually the young people. So, we have a District 7 Youth Council. Their project that year had been public transportation. They did this comprehensive report about Muni and what needed to happen. And also, uh, the Youth Commission took that up and made it a resolution of the Youth Commission that we should revisit the program. So, I took the opportunity during budget to speak to the mayor, and I, you know, authored the resolution, which became Free Muni for Youth. But it all started with young people. 

MELISSA: And Melgar tells us her advocacy pre-dates her time in office.

MYRNA: Before I became a supervisor, I was executive director of the Jamestown Community Center, which is one of the oldest and most active organizations in San Francisco serving youth, low income youth, specifically. And back then we were fighting for free Muni for all youth, and the program that it became, free Muni for only low income youth, uh, was a compromise. Free Muni for all youth is an equalizer by neighborhood, by class, by what school you go to. Everybody’s equal, and everybody gets to ride Muni. And it’s a privilege, right? And then, Muni’s great. So, we’re training all youth, regardless of income, to be, you know, Muni riders to get to school, to get to after school and to all of their things easily and to understand how to do it, you know. And so, I think that that’s a really great thing. :56

MELISSA: We do ask Melgar to talk about why it’s important to HER that all young people can take Muni for free, including those who could afford to pay a fare.

MYRNA: Those kids would most likely be taking Waymos, actually, and get used to somebody driving them to school. Instead, we’re saying, “Go take Muni. Look at how wonderful it is.” And, uh, we are having that city life of being on the same bus, on the same train, on the same cable car as everyone else in the city. And you are learning how to get around this wonderful city on public transit, instead of taking a Waymo or a private vehicle. So, I think there’s a value to that. To everybody supporting the system and to the city meeting on Muni altogether and doing that in a generational level. So, all these folks will be the riders of tomorrow, will be the ones who are the voters of tomorrow supporting the system. But also, the ones that are gonna be riding the system tomorrow and paying for it.

ZULEYMA SARCENO: My name is Zuleyma Sarceno, and I go to Abraham Lincoln High School. I’ve been taking Muni since I was a child and going to elementary school, and some of my favorite lines are the T and the L just because that’s what I use to get to and from school every day.

MELISSA: Sarceno is a member of the SFMTA’s Youth Transportation Advisory Board, and we’re at the Van Ness Station talking about what Muni means to her.

ZULEYMA: I’m a very active student. I participate in a lot of extra curriculars and activities across the city. And Muni, itself, has really allowed me to be a part of all the different activities that I do. And I don’t think that I would have been such an active member of my community if it weren’t for transit and the, and the way that it’s allowed me to really navigate the city.
 
MELISSA: What, if anything, would you want young people who maybe don’t take Muni to know? And what would you want them to know about the Free Muni for Youth program? 
 
 ZULEYMA: Yeah, I think a lot of youth sometimes lack a lot of that human connection, especially with, like, technology and phone use. And I think that transportation really allows youth to be connected. Not just to, like, their schools and their peers, but also to the larger communities around them. And I think that that is so important. A city like San Francisco is so rich and diverse and vibrant. And when youth aren’t involved in these activities, when they aren’t involved in their communities, there’s so much that we miss out on. And as teens, it can be really easy to feel like we depend on a parent or a car to get around. But when you use transportation, there’s so much, um, independence that we’re able to have. We’re able to navigate the city much more easily. And being able to have that ability, to just go to the park, to go downtown because of transit, I think that that's really important for youth, and that it’s something that’s worth exploring.
 
MELISSA: We talked about your activities. We talked about the fact that you take Muni to school. Is there any specific place, whether for school or for fun, that you like to take Muni? Or any, sort of, fun experience you’ve had on Muni that you want to tell us about?
 
ZULEYMA: Ooh, okay, I think growing up, one of my favorite experiences was going to school every morning because it was always the same bus driver. It was the same bus line that I took. And I got to really know the bus driver on my line. And I think that becoming friends with them and getting to see, like, a warm face every morning that I could say, like, “Good morning” to. That was always one of my favorite memories growing up. And sometimes, like, when I’m around the city or on different parts, sometimes I’ll see the same bus driver. And I’ll say hello. And it’s so nice to be able to see that same face again and see how Muni has really just allowed me to connect to so many different people that I wouldn’t have imagined, like, I’d know before.
 
MELISSA: So, Free Muni for Youth has existed almost as long as you’ve been alive.
 
ZULEYMA: Um, hm.
 
MELISSA: What do you think the value of the agency and the city having made Muni free for young people is?
 
ZULEYMA: I think, to me, accessibility has always been a big part of my life and my advocacy. It’s so vital that youth are able to be a part of the city that they live in. And without transportation, without Free Muni for Youth, we risk youth not being connected to their communities. And we risk so much of the vitality and the diversity that they bring to our city. Growing up in a low income background, growing up in a Hispanic community, going to a public high school, I know just how important this service is for young people. I know just how much it helps them to be a part of the city and to be able to live the lives that they do. And this is a program that is 100% a huge part of what makes our city so amazing.

MELISSA: We tend to agree, and that is why we invest in Free Muni for Youth. Once again, we check in with Revenue, Development and Reporting Director Diana Hammons who has some last words about how the program is paid for.

DIANA: So, we did receive two one-time funding sources. The first during the pilot program from Google. And then, uh, the second…the Mayor’s Office and the Board of Supervisors allocated funding for the expansion of the program to all youth. But other than that, this program, as with many of our discount programs, are assumed within our operating budget. The SFMTA has the most comprehensive free and reduced discount fare program of any transit agency in the country. It’s something we’re very proud of and something we’ve prioritized over the years, as you can see with all the changes and all the expanding to serve more people. And these budget trade-offs come up every time in our two-year budget. And we have to make difficult decisions, but I can say that in those difficult times and difficult decision making processes, these programs have always been prioritized as something that are very sacred to our agency. There are many studies that show that when you introduce transit to youth at a young age, they will continue to ride transit. And that’s our priority at the SFMTA, to encourage people to take transit. And this creates a lifelong habit. That is our goal. 

MELISSA: Thank you for joining us on Taken with Transportation. We’re a production of the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, and you can find the latest episodes at SFMTA.com-slash-Podcast, as well as Apple, Spotify, our YouTube channel or wherever you listen. I’m Melissa Culross, be well and travel well.