Public Transportation and Small Children

In addition to walking around downtown, we sometimes use public transportation for our adventures. There are four bus routes with stops within two blocks of our house, so it’s very convenient when we want to get to the Children’s Museum or other downtown spots a little faster than our legs will take us. Noodle loves taking the bus and the light rail, so sometimes I plan a special adventure to check out a different library or park near a bus route.

It is, however, often challenging taking a stroller on the buses. If you’ve got one of those big travel systems strollers - forget it. Most bus drivers and passengers have no sympathy for a parent hauling a baby in a car seat carrier, plus a diaper bag and a stroller. If you’ve got help, it can work. Trying to do it yourself is a frustrating and difficult experience. And the small community buses have especially steep stairs, so getting on carrying a baby plus a stroller is nearly impossible without assistance. Most of the bus drivers I’ve met on the community buses, however, are very willing to stop and help me get everything safely on the bus.

The light rail is much easier with a full travel system stroller – you just wheel that baby right on, and most of the time there’s room to park it near one of the doors. Just lock the brakes on it, and be prepared to move the stroller to allow other passengers to get on and off. If no wheelchair riders need the space, you could also use the spots designated for wheelchairs, but again, be prepared to allow a person with a disability access to that seat if needed. Courtesy is always the key – even if someone is rude to you! :)

When kids get bigger, it’s much more fun and a whole lot easier to get around on public transportation. I bring a small umbrella stroller and a backpack style diaper bag, and it’s a breeze getting on and off buses with only a little practice. Noodle loves riding the bus and the light rail, and it’s a great way to explore the city together. We especially have fun when I get a day pass. Noodle rides free until he’s 5, so it’s just my fare I need to worry about. It’s currently $2 a ride for an adult, and a day pass is $6, so for any trip where we’re going to do 3 or more segments it makes sense for me to get a day pass. I also like the day pass because we can get on and off as many times as we want. This is especially helpful with the light rail, since Noodle loves just riding it around town and watching everything. We’ll get on at Japantown and ride it down to the Children’s Discovery Museum, or stop at St. James park to play on the playground, or get off at San Antonio for a snack, or at the Convention Center to wander back to Cesar Chavez Plaza for a run up and down the paths.

Sometimes we’ll ride the bus to the light rail station rather than walking down to it, which always adds to the adventure. Or I’ll plan a little longer trip on the bus to go visit a different library branch or find a new playground. One of our favorite bus adventures is to take route 64 from downtown over to Willow Glen. We get off at Lincoln and Willow, then stop for a snack at Jamba Juice, Peets, &/or Noah’s Bagels. Then it’s a nice walk down Lincoln Ave, stopping to browse in the shops along the way. Noodle always loves Hicklebee’s, of course. We always visit the Willow Glen branch library (not far from the intersection of Minnesota and Lincoln), and sometimes catch the 64 bus again and head down to Lincoln Glen park for a bit. There’s plenty of great spots to stop for lunch in Willow Glen before heading home for naptime.

If Noodle does get fidgety on the bus or light rail, I can always get out a book or play I spy and finger games together. Sometimes on long bus rides, I get out my ipod touch and let him play a toddler game or hear a story.

If you’re worried about germs on the bus, just keep a few wipes and some hand sanitizer with you and use it frequently. When you get to your destination, find a bathroom and wash hands. Frankly, I think we’ve caught far more colds at playdates or in the church nursery than we have from riding the bus. And we’ve met all kinds of interesting people who love making Noodle smile.

Walking Around Downtown

I love walking. I love the slower pace, I love that I have time to think, I love the freedom of picking my path and going where cars can’t go. I’ve loved walking for years and years. In college my favorite way to de-stress was to go for a long wandering walk, listening to music. I think best when I’m walking. I love walking so much that I would rather find a way to walk or use public transportation than drive.

Walking helped me lose the baby weight after Noodle was born. It helped me de-stress. It got us out of the house and gave Noodle all kinds of things to look at, and as he got older, so much to talk about!

Living downtown, there’s tons of places for us to explore on foot. Noodle and I walk around downtown San Jose at least twice a week. Sometimes we take a bus or the light rail to go explore other areas of the South Bay. But we walk somewhere almost every day – to our neighborhood park, to a friend’s house, to the library – and it feels great to get outside.

There are some things to watch out for when you’re walking downtown. Honestly, they’re things you’d find anywhere, but they’re just in higher concentration in an urban area. Here’s my list of stroller obstacles:

• bikes on the sidewalk
• drivers who aren’t watching for you or don’t believe you have the right-of-way at an intersection (I always make eye contact with the drivers before starting to cross)
• anyone on a cell phone, texting, or looking at a pda
• uneven pavement (more a problem in the residential areas around downtown)
• curbs without ramps (also more likely in the residential areas)
• doors that don’t have auto-open so you’ll need to figure out how to get the door open and the stroller though (although usually someone holds the door for us)

But the challenges are far outweighed by the joys of getting out and walking downtown with my boy. Here’s just a short list of what we like about our adventures downtown:

• There’s LOTS to look at! Noodle stays happy with everything he gets to see, and it gives us plenty to talk about.
• There are many routes to explore. We have a few favorite ways to walk to the downtown core from our house, but it’s fun to find new paths, too. It’s really neat to see the different homes and buildings downtown and find a new business or a quirky little street we hadn’t seen before.
• Exercise! There’s no gym fees, and it’s something I can do with Noodle. Seriously, I lost 20lbs walking consistently for about 10 months, and I’m keeping it off by continuing to walk downtown at least twice a week.
• It’s free! Talk about cheap entertainment, apart from the stops for coffee and snacks.
• It gets us outside.
• It’s an opportunity to slow down a little. We can stop and watch the construction trucks for a few minutes, or pause to admire the flowers in a garden (and talk about the colors and shapes and sizes), say hi and chat with neighbors we meet, pop into the new restaurant to browse the menu and even get a snack, or just let Noodle out of the stroller to “walk for a little bit all by myself”!

I know walking this much isn’t for everyone, but I hope that more people will discover the great things that walking around downtown San Jose can offer.

And so it begins...

Welcome to Urban Mama San Jose!

As a mom living in downtown San Jose, California, I’ve discovered that there are some things that make life easier, and some challenges to urban parenthood. This blog is an opportunity to share some of what I’ve learned, and to hear from you what you like or don’t like about living downtown.

Some things to know about me:
1. I like living in downtown San Jose. I like the diversity in our neighborhood, I like the energy of living in an urban setting, and I love the community of neighbors we’ve built here.

2. I don’t drive. I walk or use public transportation most of the time. I’m not afraid of buses, even with a baby or toddler in tow, and I have no problem walking 3-5 miles a day to get around. That’s how I lost the baby weight after Noodle was born!

3. I believe in being polite and treating everyone with respect. I hope this blog will reflect that.

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I’m sure more things about me will come out as this continues, but for now I hope that gives you an idea of where I’m coming from.