Transit Agencies Are Taking Small Steps Toward Family-Friendly Systems

Increasing transit access for seniors, pregnant people and families traveling with small children means better mobility for everyone.

In 2006, a transit agency serving the communities adjacent the Sacramento and San Joaquin River Delta claimed to be the first in the U.S. to provide a dedicated space for people to park strollers as they rode a bus.

Tri Delta Transit, which serves northeastern Contra Costa County in the San Francisco Bay Area, created the zone because it noticed more families riding with strollers. “We recognized the difficulty they encounter when required to fold their strollers and felt there was more we could do to make their experience easier and more enjoyable,” said the agency’s outgoing CEO Jeanne Krieg, herself a parent, in a press release issued that year.

“[Riding the bus] can prove difficult to someone who must manage not only a child in a stroller, but a bag of groceries and perhaps an accompanying toddler or two,” the 2006 press release added.