Junior Jack Ryan Fernandez Yambao rushes to leave Lowell’s campus after school, anxiously checking bus schedules in the hope that he will be able to reach the Mission District in time to pick his sister up from school. Without consistent access to a car, Yambao relies on public transportation as his primary method of traveling around the city. He had promised his parents that he would arrive on time, but as his bus becomes increasingly delayed and his commute lengthens by the minute, this begins to seem impossible. Worrying about his sister being left at school and dreading his parents’ reaction to his now inevitable late arrival, Yambao wishes that he had an easier and more efficient way to commute across the city. Yambao is one of many Lowell students who, whether by choice or necessity, rely on forms of transportation other than driving to travel within San Francisco.
Some Lowell students struggle to access effective methods of travel in San Francisco, facing issues with the efficiency of public transit in their neighborhood or lacking the resources necessary to utilize alternative forms of transportation. While driving can save time and reduce the difficulty of students’ commutes, many students don’t have consistent access to a car. Long commutes, which can be caused by factors including long distances to transit stops or delays in service, can detrimentally impact students’ lives, limiting the time that they are able to spend on schoolwork and other activities. This issue creates unique challenges for students who use public transportation by necessity, and budget concerns faced by San Francisco’s public transportation providers could introduce greater difficulties for the many city residents who rely on it.
According to a survey administered by The Lowell in January 2025, 64.9 percent of respondents said that their commute significantly limited the amount of time they are able to spend on activities including homework, extracurriculars, spending time with friends, and sleeping. Although the convenience and efficiency of transit routes varies for students living in different areas of San Francisco, public transportation is still the primary resource that many students depend on to navigate the city. As a result, many students must rely on an unpredictable schedule of buses and trains to commute, cutting into the amount of free time they have outside of school. San Francisco is unique for its widely used networks of public transportation. The San Francisco Municipal Railway (Muni) and Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) lines are extensive enough to theoretically allow residents to travel to all areas within the city. In 2013, the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA)’s Free Muni for Youth pilot program was introduced, providing free transportation to all riders aged 18 or under and making Muni even more widely accessible to students. The program was put into effect permanently in 2015.
Despite these benefits, San Francisco’s public transportation system is not free of issues. Sophomore Phoenix McNab, a member of the Lowell Transit Club who expressed mostly positive views on San Francisco’s public transportation, acknowledged its problems. “The frequency [of buses] is not enough,” he said. “If they added more frequency, then it would probably be a lot better.” Senior Daisy Meeks feels that transit reliability issues, such as buses failing to arrive on schedule or leaving riders waiting for extended periods of time, can create stress and uncertainty for public transportation users. “You can’t always rely on [transit],” she said. “Sometimes you really need it to come at a certain time and it doesn’t.” Junior Otto Krause feels that he has recently observed changes with the ease and accessibility of public transit. “Costs are going up, reliability is going down, and it’s making it hard for people to get around,” he said.
Despite the SFMTA’s efforts to provide accessible services for youth across San Francisco, some students face far longer commutes than their peers. Yambao, who relies on Muni to travel to school and work, experiences difficulty with extended trip times from his home located between the Mission and Potrero Hill neighborhoods. According to Yambao, he feels that the significant length of time he spends commuting on public transit takes time away from other areas of his life. “Having to work around [the commute time] when it comes to extracurriculars and at-home responsibilities, plus work and schoolwork, is definitely a limiting factor,” he said. “Trying to balance a lot of things with something so unpredictable can be really inconvenient.”
Yambao feels that his commute reduces the range of opportunities, such as jobs and extracurriculars, that he is able to pursue. He has his driver’s license, but does not have full-time access to the family car. As a student uses public transportation by necessity, Yambao has a significantly longer commute in comparison to some with full access to a vehicle. “I think that if I was able to get a car or use a car more often, it would allow me to [use that time] more,” he said.
Overcrowding, inconsistent timing, and other transit challenges are especially prevalent on the 29 Sunset bus, which many Lowell students take. According to a survey conducted by The Lowell in January 2025, 49 percent of student respondents said they take the 29 bus. Both Meeks and junior Sylvia Nickolopolous expressed difficulties with this bus line, citing unreliable service and consistent overcrowding. “It can be really crowded, and every once in a while, it will not come for a long period of time, and then I have to be late to school,” Meeks said. Nickolopolous has also experienced the 29 buses becoming crowded with students. “It’s a clown car situation,” she said.
According to SFMTA Transit Planner Adrienne Mau, the SFMTA is aware of students’ challenges with the 29 bus line. In 2019, responding to feedback from community members, the organization began developing the 29 Sunset Improvement Project. The project aims to reduce delays and long wait times for 29 bus riders, as well as reducing “pass ups,” when people are not able to board because the bus is too crowded. The project is set to be implemented in stages, and the majority of its planned changes have yet to take effect.
As a 29 bus rider, McNab has not yet seen the full impact of the project on the bus line. “I’ve seen improved frequency, which is good, but other than that, not much,” he said. “What they really need to do is implement a 29 Rapid bus, but they need funding for that.” Nickolopolous has similar ideas for improving the bus line’s effectiveness. “I think that two-car buses, just adding more space, is a great solution,” she said.
In addition to these issues, the SFMTA is navigating financial difficulties that could bring changes to service and accessibility in the coming years. The SFMTA is currently facing a financial deficit that is projected to grow into a budget gap of hundreds of millions of dollars, the effect of a combination of financial troubles left over from the COVID-19 pandemic and high rates of inflation. According to Mau, the SFMTA’s budget crisis has the potential to exacerbate any existing issues with the access and availability of Muni buses in San Francisco. “There’s these worst case scenarios, like [if] we have to significantly reduce transit service on certain lines,” she said. “Federal requirements require agencies to keep lifeline lines running, but that might still mean longer [wait times], meaning, instead of 10 minutes, it could be 15 or 20 minutes until you see a bus, or it might stop short at a certain location and then you have to transfer somewhere else.” Mau emphasized the SFMTA’s commitment to providing essential and equitable transportation access to all San Franciscans. “We have this equity viewpoint, [where] we ensure that communities who don’t have any other way of getting around aren’t disproportionately affected,” she said. “Schools are also top of mind, to ensure that students are able to get around.”
Some students who don’t drive seek out travel alternatives beyond public transportation. Senior Olivia Santos bikes to school every day, choosing this option above public transit due to its convenience, time efficiency, and environmental benefits. “It takes me the exact same amount of time to bike to school as it does to take the train, but the difference is that I leave my house and I am on my way to school. I don’t stand at Church Station for 20 minutes waiting for the train to come,” Santos said. “Biking allows me to actually get to school on time.”
Although Santos feels that she is able to access safe bicycle routes within her Duboce Triangle neighborhood, she wishes for more bicycle safety infrastructure within the city as a whole. “[San Francisco needs] more protected bike lanes, because even when there’s a designated bike lane, there are always motorcycles, there are always cars,” she said. Santos feels that some San Francisco drivers dislike bicyclists, having experienced aggressive and incautious behavior from drivers while bicycling. “[I feel like] there’s not a single person on the road who has any love at all for a bike,” she said. “Like, why? I’m on a bike and you’re in a massive vehicle.”
According to Mau, the SFMTA is currently working on projects to improve bicyclist and pedestrian safety in San Francisco. “In 2014, we established our Vision Zero policy citywide, focusing aspirationally on [achieving] zero vehicle traffic-related deaths in the city,” she said. The Vision Zero policy has provided the SFMTA with an avenue to begin street safety projects for bicyclists and pedestrians, namely the Vision Zero Quick Build Program, which quickly implements safety improvements in areas with high rates of pedestrian and bicycle injuries. “Since the inception of our Quick Build program, which was around 2019, we’ve completed 50 miles of Quick Build traffic safety projects throughout the city, which also means that we’ve rolled out a considerable amount of protected bike lanes,” she said. “We have these tools now, and the support from our SFMTA Board, to really get that protection.”
San Francisco’s public transportation networks are an essential service for Lowell students. Krause believes that effective and affordable transportation options are a necessity, and feels that the city’s transit resources have the capacity to continue improving. “It helps low income families get around San Francisco,” he said. “If public transportation is reliable, it’s a very helpful solution.” Mau encourages students to continue reaching out to the SFMTA with comments or concerns about their public transportation experiences. “[We want to] connect with students and community groups about the work that we’re doing,” she said. “We want them to see us as people, rather than just the city government. There’s so many different ways to get involved, [and] different ways to make your concerns noted.”
