How this Nashville high schooler found independence by riding a city bus

For high school senior Mikeyah Lee, riding the bus means independence.

It’s allowed her to attend the school she wanted — outside of her zoned area — to travel to work, and to spend more time with her friends.

“Instead of having my mom pick me up … we just ride the bus,” Lee says. “It gives you that independence.”

More: Understanding Nashville’s transit referendum

She wants other students to be able to use it and feel comfortable doing so. It’s one of the reasons she joined the WeGo Public Transit’s Youth Action Team.

“I was thinking it would be great to help out kids who don’t know how to ride the bus or just show them how to do this,” Lee says. “It’s been something I’ve been proud of.”

Lee says she’s noticed more and more kids from her school riding the bus. All Metro Nashville Public School high school students are able to ride for free using their school ID. Students in grades 5-8 attending an out-of-zone school are able to ride freely through the city’s StrIDe program. Last year, WeGo recorded 595,000 student rides.

While most students are too young to vote, they will be impacted one way or the other with the city’s transit referendum. It asks voters to approve a half-cent sales tax increase to fund a $3.1 billion dollars’ worth of transit upgrades.

In the story above you can tag along with Mikeyah for her morning ride to school, to get a feel for what bus riding is like for students. This story is part of a series of ridealongs exploring how people use the system. For more explanatory stories about the transit referendum, visit WPLN.org/transit.