AC Transit School Bus, Line 64
By Dante Higgins
BERKELEY -- AC Transit Line 64 is practically a school bus. "I think it's about 99 percent students," says 17-year veteran driver Jerry Collins.
The 64 travels from the University of California, Berkeley, to Merritt College in Oakland. Also along the line are Willard Middle School, Holy Names College, and Claremont Middle School.
UC students board the bus from all over Berkeley and generally exit before Rockridge BART in Oakland. If they aren't wearing Cal gear and flip-flops, they identify themselves as Cal Bears when they swiftly board the bus by flashing their student identification cards. A shiny rust-colored sticker in the lower right corner of the card allows them to bypass the fare box, which saves about five seconds and $1.50 per passenger.
The route circles the UC campus, making up to 17 stops. Students use the bus to shuttle to different areas of campus, including up the steep hills to Hearst Greek Theatre and International House. The bus takes about 15 minutes to loop around the school from Bancroft and Telegraph before continuing toward Rockridge BART.
Collins said the busiest times are 7:30 to 10:30 a.m. and 3:45 to 6:00 p.m. But at 1:17 p.m. every day, his bus is taken over by an energetic crew of sixth, seventh, and eighth graders on their way home from Willard Middle School.
Scores of Willard students assemble on the corner of Telegraph and Stuart, waiting for the 64. As the front doors open, a sea of jackets, backpacks, and sneakers rushes in. The driver yells, "Step back," and the students fall into single file.
Most of the youngsters concentrate as they straighten, flatten, and position dollar bills, coins, and transfers into the fare box. The students noisily fill almost every seat on the bus, which previously had six silent passengers scattered among the seats, either reading or staring out of a window.
To accommodate the school traffic, the 64 line has two counterparts. The first is a full route line and the second is a shortened line. Alternating buses drive the full route from UC Berkeley to Merritt College in Oakland while the others end at Rockridge BART. The drivers call the shortened route a shuttle as the bus takes a few minutes to rest at Rockridge BART and then loops back around to pick up passengers again on its way to Berkeley BART.
At 3:50 p.m., a new group boards the bus at Rockridge BART, bound for Merritt College. This group has children, elderly, and young adults. Within minutes the bus enters a residential area of tall trees and rolling hills. The crowd shrinks to six young adults with book bags.
Two students of Merritt College, Sharon Lockhart and Shannon Byrd, use the 64 in their commute from North Oakland. "It's convenient because it's a clear shot from Rockridge BART," said Byrd.
"I think it's a good line," says Lockhart. "I think they should
keep it running. Without it my commute gets a lot longer. If I miss the other
bus that comes up here, I could miss an entire class period."