An audacious quest: Nashville teen tries to ride every city bus route before graduation

For many high school seniors, the end-of-year bucket list might include things like college decision day, prom and graduation.

But for Reagan Harkins, a senior at Hume Fogg, he’s got another list going. This one looks more like: 3a, 3b, 4, 4s, and so on.

They’re bus routes — all the WeGo bus routes, to be exact.

Harkins, who — like thousands of Metro Nashville Public School students, rides the city bus to and from school for free — has made it his goal to experience all routes before he graduates.

The clock is ticking — graduation is a mere three months away. But the project has been years in the making, starting when he was a sophomore, while waiting at the downtown bus station with a friend.

“I was like ‘I’ve ridden that one and that one and that one,’ and I was pointing them out,” Harkins said. “She was like, ‘Have you just ridden all of them?’ I was like ‘Well, not quite, but I definitely could.”

And, thus, the “bus-ket list” was born.

Harkins has 14 routes left to go. Many of them are the longer, commuter routes — like to Spring Hill or Dickson. But, earlier this month, after school, he hopped on the 29 instead of the 52, riding to Tennessee State University and knocking one more route off his list.

“I think it’s cool for me taking all of the routes in the city, getting to see places and neighborhoods that I wouldn’t otherwise,” Harkins said.

Reagan’s passionate about riding — both for himself and for others. He leads the “bus portion” of freshman orientation every year.

“I’ve taught probably 100 and something kids how to access the bus with their student IDs,” Harkins said. “I’ve had a couple of freshmen that have caught me in the hallways, like, you’re the kid that taught me how to ride the bus.”

Reagan wants other kids to share his passion for bus riding. Part of that involves teaching — but part of that will require infrastructure to improve.

Riding has illuminated some of the real challenges with the bus system.

And, Reagan wants to fix them. In fact, he’s hoping to pursue a degree — and, eventually, a career — in city planning.

“I can bring with me in my career the problems I want to solve,” Harkins said. “In Nashville, a lot of the bus routes go in or go out and they don’t really go around the city, which makes it kind of difficult to get around if you wanted to go from one end of Davidson County to another.”

He’s become so certain of this career path that he even wrote his college essay about bussing (and the bus-ket list.)

Harkins wrote: “I was mesmerized by the different busses pit stopping at the station, like worker bees coming to and from their hive on a mission. I pointed them out as they passed me by: Caterpillar double length busses with accordions in the middle.”

It’s an essay that, according to his mom Kelly, paid off.

“His admissions letter [to one college] had a ‘P.S., we love your bucket list.’ And he was like, ‘Mom, check this out,” she said. “And we were like, ‘What! That’s amazing”

As Reagan prepares to move away for college, he is excited to complete the list. However, he anticipates it will also feel bittersweet.

“It means that like not only have I finished it, but it also means that my time in Nashville is coming to an end as I look towards college and other places,” Harkins said.

But, he will be back. And, one thing already on the agenda? A bus ride.