For youth interested in transit, delving into the field has long meant knowing someone who worked inside.

That’s how Austin Lee set his sights on becoming a San Francisco Muni mechanic. Lee – who this fall will begin his second year studying to be an auto mechanic at Skyline College, a community college five miles south of San Francisco’s southern border – began riding Muni by himself since freshman year of high school. And although he spent time making videos of Muni buses and bus models on Minecraft, it wasn’t until he met a mechanic during a solitary visit to a Muni bus garage in 2018 that he learned more about being a mechanic and working for Muni…

To ensure young transit riders felt safe sharing about their experiences using Muni and what needed to be improved, they created the Youth Transportation Advisory Board… .