Note, 12/4/2013: TransitPeople is closing up shop! Please see the news page for more information.

TransitPeople is an all-volunteer Los Angeles 501(c)3 public charity that conducts educational, one day field trips for elementary and middle school groups using the public transit system. We ride the Blue Line to the Aquarium, the 81 bus to the Natural History Museum, the subway to the Central Library, and other trains and buses to visit many other educational destinations in the Los Angeles area.

Our field trips are free. We pay admission costs, and either obtain transit passes from the local transit agency or pay for transit costs ourselves. We work with Title I schools in low income, inner city areas well served by public transit, including South Los Angeles, East Los Angeles, the mid-Wilshire area, and the south of downtown Blue Line corridor along Washington Boulevard.

Since 1999, we have completed trips for over 40,000 children from more than fifty schools. We:

•  try to make it easy for teachers to book short notice, ‘on demand’ field trips for one class at a time. A teacher wrapping up the Open Court Sharing Stories unit can book a TransitPeople trip to the Central Library, or to the Page Museum to complement a unit on fossils.

•  introduce the transit system, and the notion that one can live and travel in Los Angeles without a car. A child who rides the 754 or DASH to the Science Center can share the route information with parents, and return with family members.

Our trips are led by trip leaders: volunteers who have completed training, evaluation trips, background checks and first aid certification. Teachers also can qualify as teacher-trip leaders, to lead field trips for their own classes or other classes at their school sites.

Unfortunately, we only can serve schools well served by transit services. We also book only educational trips, and limit group size to twenty-four children on trips requiring bus transit.