When I was a child, my mother had a very simple rule when we were taking public transit: If I misbehaved, we walked . . . no matter how far from home we were. I knew perfectly well that my mother didn’t want to walk home any more than I did so one day I decided to call her bluff.
Four hours later we arrived – by foot – at home.
Children, like everyone else in public transit, are people that need to be designed for. Children get restless when in a confined space . . . unless they are distracted by something. Why do you think Ikea has a playground and restaurants have coloring books? Adults do not perceive time the same way children do. For adults, half an hour is gone in an instant. For children, it’s an eternity. Why don’t we ever take this into consideration?
If transit planners want to keep people and families using transit throughout their lives we should be designing systems so that parents look forward to – rather than dread – the experience of taking their easily-distractible children on a subway. This, I suspect, is one of the major reasons behind young parents almost inevitably gravitating to the private automobile.
One of the most delightful distractions I can remember as a child was the front seat of a subway or the backseat of a streetcar or bus. In these locations a child can witness first-hand what the vehicle is experiencing and are mesmerized by it. To this day, I still see children clamoring for space in these prime locations. Like me in my day, these kids tend to be quiet, behave and just generally watch the world go by, causing little concern for their parents or other passengers.
Unfortunately, current transit design practice eliminates these prime viewing spots. Rear windows in buses have been replaced by air conditioning units and trains (both the light and the heavy kind) reserve the front of the train almost exclusively for the driver. What’s a kid to do?
How about this: Why not reserve a small and designated section of subways just for kids to play around in? Nothing dangerous, just a place where kids can be kids. That, I think, would make the experience more enjoyable for everyone. In fact, it may actually attract ridership as parents would be nagged to death by their children who want to ride the “play train.”
One rule, however: No adults in the ball crawl.