SACHA PFEIFFER, HOST:
High school kids often have demanding schedules, and many of them can't drive. So one student in Suffolk, Virginia started a transit advocacy group. Its members want to make it easier and safer to get around without cars, as Kelly Kenoyer from member station WHRO reports.
KELLY KENOYER, BYLINE: Sean Lorhenz Java is a junior at Nansemond River High School. Like many high schoolers in his suburban town, he usually takes the school bus home from school, but...
SEAN LORHENZ JAVA: There are a lot of activities I'm a part of, and I like that. But a big barrier to being active in those is actually getting home and getting around places.
KENOYER: And school buses don't run that late, so he relies on other ways to get home, like his mom, Elsienor Java. But when she works 12-hour shifts as a nurse, that's not an option. With her husband deployed in the Middle East, her son doesn't have many choices. Still, she says he's determined.
ELSIENOR JAVA: He said that he's willing to join - do after-school activities, but he will take the bus. But if he take a bus, he'll be two hours - right? - two hours.
KENOYER: That's compared to just a 15-minute trip by car. It takes that long because there's no city bus stop near the school that goes towards his house.
(SOUNDBITE OF BUS DRIVING AWAY)
KENOYER: There's a stop across the street, but it goes in a different direction before looping back past his high school to his neighborhood. Java commits to that long bus ride so he can still do speech and other activities. But he knows he's not alone in the struggle because he's been digging into YouTube essays about it.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED COMMENTATOR: Have you ever tried carrying a week's worth of groceries on foot, no car, no quick way home, just you, these bags, and a three-mile walk ahead in the Texas heat?
KENOYER: That's a clip from Strong Towns, one of many channels Java adores.
S JAVA: It's like a big thing now, urbanist YouTube. You got, like, Strong Towns, Streetcraft, Not Just Bikes - all these other groups that are trying to, like, open people's eyes.
KENOYER: He was so inspired, he decided to start a group of his own. It's called Connected Suffolk Coalition.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
S JAVA: Hello, hello, everyone.
KENOYER: Its members, who organize on the messaging app Discord, are almost entirely high school students.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
S JAVA: Welcome to the Connected Suffolk Coalition's eighth general meeting.
KENOYER: The group has held events at the public library, where they handed out free bus passes. They've engaged with public officials directly. They're planning to attend a city council meeting this month to share their goals. It can be hard to find the time, but teenagers like Cris Ashley Ventura, are good multitaskers.
CRIS ASHLEY VENTURA: I'm juggling honors chem while doing this, so...
KENOYER: The group is asking for a public bus stop at the school. When Suffolk Transit Manager Maria Ptakowski first heard about it, she didn't realize she was emailing a high schooler.
MARIA PTAKOWSKI: These days, more and more kids are trying to find ways for cars to not be their mode of transportation. So I think it's a very impressive thing for a group of high schoolers to be so involved in their community.
KENOYER: As transit manager for the city, she is now trying to get a bus stop onto school grounds that would cut Java's and other kids' commute by 40 minutes. Edward Erfurt is with the urban planning nonprofit Strong Towns. He says more and more high schoolers across the country are getting involved.
EDWARD ERFURT: Students are beginning to realize they can actually go and do things that result in positive change in their community.
KENOYER: Recent surveys show Gen Z and millennials are much more likely to prefer walkability compared to other generations. Java says he can relate to that from his car-dependent suburb.
S JAVA: What if I could walk to places or take the bus to places or bike to places? And right, now that's not the case.
KENOYER: Java plans to make his home in Suffolk a better-connected place, one bus ride, one email and one conversation at a time.
For NPR News, I'm Kelly Kenoyer in Suffolk, Virginia.
(SOUNDBITE OF DAFT PUNK SONG, "INSTANT CRUSH") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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