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Enzo Wu is a BART speedrun world recordholder. He’s also a San Ramon teenager working to “spread the gospel of transit.” “A lot of people I know haven’t actually gone out and tried transit, and they form their opinions about it from family or social media,” Wu said. His longstanding question: How can you know you don’t want to ride transit if you’ve never actually ridden it? Wu believes public transportation is an important tool for people his age. You don’t have to have a license, and you don’t have to beg your parents to drop you off and pick you up. You can just go when you want to, where you want to (with your parents’ permission, of course). Wu has been working to get his friends to take transit by inviting them to take BART to an unexplored location. “People my age don’t go out and do stuff in public enough,” he said. “They’re not getting out there and interacting with new people offline." Transit is his foolproof balm for boredom. It’s also provided him with plentiful opportunities to practice independence and social skills. “Going out in public, riding the train, these are activities that build social confidence, which so many kids lack these days,” said Wu. “Knowing how to take a train or a bus or a ferry is a big step in growing up.” Some of his friends have never done anything alone, let alone take the train to San Francisco, he added. “We’ll go to a restaurant, and they’ll get stressed because they don’t know how to pay the bill,” he said. “It’s kind of shocking. They lack social skills. But I think transit can bridge that gap. Some of my friends won’t necessarily take transit everywhere like I do, but just getting the idea in their heads is a big step.” Only two years ago, Wu himself had almost no experience on transit. It was his mom who inadvertently gave him the bug when she signed him up for 511 Contra Costa's Pass2Class, a program that gives students free bus rides to school. When Wu’s mom first gave him the card he replied: “You want me to take the bus??? Ewwwwww.” “Enzo, just try it,” she said. You know what happened next. Wu has many “transit conversion” success stories to share. Once he gets a friend onboard it’s not uncommon for the transit ingenue to become transit oriented. He believes he’s “converted” at least a dozen friends directly and dozens more indirectly, thanks to people who watch his speedrun videos and livestreams. “Building transit skills now will come in handy many years down the line when you need to get to college, to work,” he said. “That’s why I ride transit, and that’s why I’m advocating for kids my age to do the same.” Read Enzo's story here: https://lnkd.in/gNxA6cpJ BART offers a 50% fare discount for youth ages five to 18 years old with a Youth Clipper card. Children four years old and younger ride free. Learn more about Youth Clipper cards and other fare discounts here: https://lnkd.in/gBxPbcUa

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Evelyn Wu

Statistics & Machine Learning @ CMU

2mo

lets go enzo

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