MA: Mom friendly bus boarding puts glide in MeVa ride

A mom- and child-friendly change to rules for boarding MeVa buses now lessens fuss and removes a potential stressor on rides.

At least most of the time.

MeVa’s open stroller policy went into effect two weeks ago.

It allows people, typically moms, to roll strollers, with their children secured in them, directly on MeVa buses.

Previous to the policy change the parent or caretaker had to remove the child from the stroller and fold it before boarding and then stow it under the bus seat once aboard.

At a MeVa board meeting last June, Lawrence representative Myra Ortiz said that removing children from strollers at a bus stop and then having to fold the carriage, while the child is unsecured on the ground, unnerved moms and the children.

“I’ve heard it, seen it and experienced it,” Ortiz said.

She said the stroller folding requirement was a barrier to public transportation in Lawrence, a city with a large population of parents and young children. The average age is 26 in the city of 90,000 residents.

MeVa employees reviewed stroller policies at public transportation companies around the country and discussed the new policy, and developed and instituted training for drivers before adopting the change on April 14.

The change allows strollers at the front of the bus in the priority seating area.

“The child must be secured in the stroller and the brakes must remain engaged throughout the whole trip and caregivers will be required to hold onto the stroller all times,” according to MeVa officials.

People with disabilities and seniors will continue to have first priority in the priority seating area, said MeVa administrator Noah Berger.

At noon last Friday, parents Delia and Gerald Pagan and their children Sally, 4, and Syndel, 1, were waiting to board the bus at Platform B at the McGovern Transportation Center on Merrimack Street in Lawrence.

In line ahead of them were two other moms with young children in strollers.

This meant there was not enough space in the bus’s priority seating area for the Pagans to roll their double stroller.

While this day they still had to fold up the stroller, and Delia took Syndel to the back of the bus while Gerald had Sally with him up front, Delia said the new policy was, overall, good for moms and their children, especially when it comes to boarding.

“It’s better,” said Delia. But she noted that the mom still has to stand and hold the stroller as the bus moves.

Berger on Thursday told the advisory board members that the policy has been well received by drivers and passengers.

Also that there is typically enough room on buses to accommodate all the strollers.

“There will always be worst-case scenarios, but 90 percent of the time it goes without a hitch,” he said.

Board chair, Kassandra Gove, who represents Amesbury and is the city’s mayor, said she recently saw a woman with young children at the bus stop across from City Hall on French Street.

“The kids were running around and she was trying to fold up the stroller and the bus was waiting for her,” Gove said.

The mayor went outside to tell the woman about the new policy but by the time she got there the bus, with the mom and kids, had pulled away.

Berger said MeVa drivers have been trained to tell passengers with strollers about the policy change if it appears they are unaware of it.

Also, the buses sport “stroller-welcome” decals.

Berger thanked MeVa office coordinator Betsaida Jarvis, a regular MeVa rider and mom to a small child, for championing the new policy.

Betsaida worked with safety and training director Jessenia Fernandes to develop the policy and train drivers.

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