Up until a few days ago, Bean and I traveled exclusively by transit, nearly daily. With all that experience under my belt, I feel fairly comfortable telling you that riding a bus with a baby or toddler is no picnic. It is much more exhausting than riding a Muni streetcar or BART. Steel yourselves.

Here were my lessons learned. I hope they might help you navigate Muni buses with your baby/kids.

 

1. Invest in a Clipper Card

You can purchase a Clipper Card at nearly any Walgreens. I recommend doing it, and then also setting it up to auto reload online. There is little time from when you get on a bus to when the bus lurches out of the bus stop, and you don’t want to be fumbling around with $2.25 while carrying a baby with the other arm or dealing with a stroller. Or, even if your baby is safely tucked away in the Ergo, trying to feed the fare machine while the bus is moving is not fun.

Related, keep your Clipper Card easily accessible in a pocket. It’s faster than one-handedly prying your wallet out of your backpack/diaper bag.

 

2. Use the Quicky Transit app so you’ll know when the bus will arrive, and plan alternate routes home if need be

The Quicky app will tell you when all nearby buses are arriving, and even give you a map of each route with stops and current bus locations on the map.

I am never much one for surprises, and definitely not the fun surprise of waiting 20 minutes on a corner for the bus to arrive. This will also help you know when you need to book it to a bus stop because you know the bus is coming in 3 minutes.

 

3. If you can, wear that baby. Even wear that toddler.

Babywearing is the easiest way to get on/off a bus. It’s also easy in terms of sitting down, and also easiest if you have to stand. You have arms free ready to clutch onto the nearest pole. A side bonus for me, was how easily Bean would nestle in and fall asleep if she was in the Ergo on a bus. The bus might as well have been a Rock n’ Play.

Now that she’s a full-fledged, walking toddler, I’ll still throw the Ergo in my backpack if we’re taking a bus somewhere. Sure, she’s heavier now, but I don’t have to wear her for long stretches; I keep the Ergo in reserve in case she gets tired and needs help walking those final blocks to the bus stop.

 

4. If you can’t or don’t want to baby wear, know that you are allowed to bring a stroller on any Muni vehicle

Yes, even the bus. As I wrote earlier this week, your child can even stay in the stroller, and you can ask the bus driver to help you up the stairs with either the ramp or lift.

Of course, even though bringing a stroller on Muni is allowed, it doesn’t mean that it’s optimal. There isn’t a lot of room on most Muni buses for a stroller. Having a stroller on a crowded Muni bus during rush hour might just be the worst 45 minutes of your life. Other passengers will have little sympathy for you; hopefully, no one will lecture you.

 

5. Your best bet for a stroller on Muni is something that folds, especially if you can store under your seat.

It eliminates a lot of the headaches involved with having a stroller on Muni. Of course, then you’ll have to do something with the baby or toddler during the ride.

 

6. If you don’t want to ask the driver to bring out the ramp and lift, you’ll have to figure out how to get your stroller on the bus

If you have a light stroller, you may be able to just lift baby and stroller onto the Muni bus by yourself. Or, I’d often have the baby in the Ergo and carry up a folded stroller. If this is something you want or need to do, trust me that you’ll figure out a system and it’ll work fine.

Talking to other parents that take transit, none of us have had many experiences where people have offered to help. I was offered help carrying my stroller up the Muni bus steps once in the past 2 years. It was January 14, 2014 in West Portal. (I love you, West Portal.)

 

Ok. This was overly negative. Riding the bus can be tough with small kids. Here are some happy stories so that you don’t think it’s all the absolute worst.

1. That one time Bean got a bus full of people to sing Tick-Tock Tick-Tock I’m A Little Cuckoo Clock on the 44-O’Shaughnessy

2. People are generally friendly once you’re on the bus, even though I just said up there that no one will help you. Lots of people will tell you about their nieces/nephews/friends’ kids and wave happily at the baby. This is great if your kid happens to be an extrovert. We make friends everywhere we go.

3. At 2, she is a little pro at riding the bus and knows how to sit and look out the window and occupy herself. I think the whole process has taught her patience. Also, she can walk for miles, I’m sure because she has so often had to walk to bus stops.

4. The aforementioned ease with which she’d take a nap in her Ergo. She was no match for the smooth rumblings of the 24-Divisadero.

5. When I could wear her all day (and, this stretched into when she was over 12 months old), I’d throw her in the Ergo and travel around the city all day long on buses, jumping on and hopping off. Definitely beat parking somewhere then having to backtrack to your car, strapping a kid in, and then going somewhere else. There’s a lovely freedom to riding the bus.

6. With a stroller folded under the seat, it’s just me and baby, playing away while someone drives us places. Lots of time for making faces at ourselves in the reflection of the windows, pointing out fire trucks, talking to other passengers on the bus, etc.