“If you are a parent or legal guardian of an iCloud Family (an “Organizer”), you may invite Family members, including those under age 13 (or the equivalent minimum age in the applicable country), to provision and use eligible transit cards in Wallet. As the Organizer, you will be responsible for all payments, purchases, and transactions made using the transit card that has been enabled for Family members, including those initiated by the Family member. Eligibility for, and use of, transit cards in Wallet are subject to the terms and conditions of the relevant transit agency. Organizers are responsible for complying with such terms and conditions and assume all risk related to enabling transit passes with other Family members. When a Family member leaves or is removed from the Family, the Family member will no longer be able to reload the transit card and will only be able to transact on the card until such time as the card account balance is zero.”
I don’t use the Apple Watch, but in Chicago your Ventra card can be loaded into Apple Wallet and it’s simple. Finding a northbound 36 bus? Not so easy.
Does WMATA not have tap cards? In Chicago these are free for public school students. Sure it's one more thing for an 11 year old to keep track of but it's easy and a good excuse for a wallet. Kids his age love that.
““that model of selling to schools worked so great that it was very clear that the problem is big.
And it also gave us insight into this industry, which is very old and antiquated student transportation industry. 26 million kids commute twice on the entire school bus network or the student transportation network. It's the largest mass transit system in the country, nine times more people than airlines.
On airlines, typically three million people travel on a given day. And it's an essential service because schools don't get paid for the education budget unless kids come to the school. So the whole thing, seeing it, we were like, we have such an amazing solution in technology.
We should just be serving 100 percent of the market. And that's where in late 2019, early 2020, we completely transitioned to working with school districts in a model where I like to call it AWS for Student Transportation. Essentially, schools give out the large contract, they give out the entire contract, and we take care of everything from leasing the yards to financing the fleet, to hiring the drivers.”
From Watt It Takes: Zūm Founder and CEO Ritu Narayan, Jun 30, 2026
Your article has me remembering 25 years ago when we were living in Jerusalem. The bus system there is fantastic (except for the suicide bombers :() ). I regularly saw kids as young as 5 and 6 riding the bus to get to school or go home. Everyone looked out for them and they were completely confident in their ability to navigate the bus system to get where they were going. We marveled at how much more confident and independent those kids were than our American kids.
The point about tech’s reputation deserves more emphasis. The #1 thing that’s making people hate tech is that tons of kids are using their products, parents don’t feel like they can opt out, and parents are massively dissatisfied with the effect the products are having on their kids.
When confronted about this, they’ll say that there are parental controls, but those don’t work - they are hard for parents to set up and easy for kids to circumvent. It’s a fig leaf and a joke.
The anger is getting bigger every year. Regulation is coming unless they clean up their act and develop products for kids that parents can feel good about.
Taking the opportunity to advocate for more frequent busses. Given all the supposedly terrible things that public sector unions are supposed to do why not throw a bone of more bus drivers?
I agree at all levels and it does seem like a sensible thing t do, but OTOH kids have to carry arund stuff (and they can get lost!) but is a Metro fare card that much trouble?
This is a WMATA specific concern: the MTA has adapted pretty much all transit options for direct tap-to-pay (Visa, Mastercard, and the associated “Wallets”) with OMNY, so the specific question of a transit pass ends up besides the point. You don’t have to load money onto an arbitrary pass you keep on your phone, you can just tap your phone (or watch) and be done with it. As a New Yorker who has spent a lot of time in DC, this strikes me as a way in which we’re well ahead.
Unrelated to the articles main point, but I thought that most of the Apple Watch’s features required having an iPhone nearby. How does your son use one without a smartphone?
I grew up on uptown New Orleans, which is a relatively small place. It wasn’t until much later in life I appreciated the freedom I had from about 10 years old. I could ride my bike almost anywhere I wanted to go (school, my friends), and if I really needed to I could take the streetcar all the way downtown. As an adult I live in Atlanta, where we are all slaves to our cars. I miss that freedom.
When I was a kid, we all got golf carts to drive around the ~80 miles of paths connecting every area of Peachtree City. It was great. I think you had to be 14 so a bit older than Matt’s kids but being able to move around independently on the somewhat safer cart paths a few years before being allowed to drive was great.
I'll mostly second the point while disagreeing. My local bus system (PVTA - basically the I-91 corridor in MA) is safe for children to ride, and is a massively valuable enhancement for our children's ability to get around. But the area is more suburban than urban - which means bikes are ALSO a good option and complement the bus, and you can ride a bike to the store or to school without it being stolen. So disagreement - I think suburban area can support busses too.
I mean, yes, the bus isn't as middle-class as I am. Last week I rode the bus (ironically, to pick up my car from the mechanic) and I think I heard the n-word every minute the whole ride. But no one was angry/upset/fighting - people were gracious about letting people past, moving to free up seats,a nd etc.
I agree! My little transit agency just announced free passes for anyone under 18. It's a physical card. I think this is preferable! I don't want my kid on the phone. I guess it's fine if they do an electronic one too, but I am not convinced a problem actually exists.
I believe I'd always feel a bit edgy about my grandkids using DC busses. The chances of problems are likely minimal. But they're also maybe five times as great as other possibilities. But I grew up in non-public transit areas. Here in Alexandria we have school busses, and it's okay to ride a bike, too.
I think the real solution here is not so much to make this one hyper-specific change as to make smartphones more customizable in general. It’s weird to me that pre-set parental controls are the only realistic options to limit use to pre-approved apps.
Apple allows this - maybe the problem is the DC transit system isn’t eligible for some reason.
https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/apple-pay-wallet/us/
“If you are a parent or legal guardian of an iCloud Family (an “Organizer”), you may invite Family members, including those under age 13 (or the equivalent minimum age in the applicable country), to provision and use eligible transit cards in Wallet. As the Organizer, you will be responsible for all payments, purchases, and transactions made using the transit card that has been enabled for Family members, including those initiated by the Family member. Eligibility for, and use of, transit cards in Wallet are subject to the terms and conditions of the relevant transit agency. Organizers are responsible for complying with such terms and conditions and assume all risk related to enabling transit passes with other Family members. When a Family member leaves or is removed from the Family, the Family member will no longer be able to reload the transit card and will only be able to transact on the card until such time as the card account balance is zero.”
I don’t use the Apple Watch, but in Chicago your Ventra card can be loaded into Apple Wallet and it’s simple. Finding a northbound 36 bus? Not so easy.
Does WMATA not have tap cards? In Chicago these are free for public school students. Sure it's one more thing for an 11 year old to keep track of but it's easy and a good excuse for a wallet. Kids his age love that.
Good podcast about a parent starting an Uber for kids and stumbling into a school bus replacement service: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/watt-it-takes/id1554962073?i=1000774796279
““that model of selling to schools worked so great that it was very clear that the problem is big.
And it also gave us insight into this industry, which is very old and antiquated student transportation industry. 26 million kids commute twice on the entire school bus network or the student transportation network. It's the largest mass transit system in the country, nine times more people than airlines.
On airlines, typically three million people travel on a given day. And it's an essential service because schools don't get paid for the education budget unless kids come to the school. So the whole thing, seeing it, we were like, we have such an amazing solution in technology.
We should just be serving 100 percent of the market. And that's where in late 2019, early 2020, we completely transitioned to working with school districts in a model where I like to call it AWS for Student Transportation. Essentially, schools give out the large contract, they give out the entire contract, and we take care of everything from leasing the yards to financing the fleet, to hiring the drivers.”
From Watt It Takes: Zūm Founder and CEO Ritu Narayan, Jun 30, 2026
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/watt-it-takes/id1554962073?i=1000774796279&r=2678
This material may be protected by copyright.”
Your article has me remembering 25 years ago when we were living in Jerusalem. The bus system there is fantastic (except for the suicide bombers :() ). I regularly saw kids as young as 5 and 6 riding the bus to get to school or go home. Everyone looked out for them and they were completely confident in their ability to navigate the bus system to get where they were going. We marveled at how much more confident and independent those kids were than our American kids.
The point about tech’s reputation deserves more emphasis. The #1 thing that’s making people hate tech is that tons of kids are using their products, parents don’t feel like they can opt out, and parents are massively dissatisfied with the effect the products are having on their kids.
When confronted about this, they’ll say that there are parental controls, but those don’t work - they are hard for parents to set up and easy for kids to circumvent. It’s a fig leaf and a joke.
The anger is getting bigger every year. Regulation is coming unless they clean up their act and develop products for kids that parents can feel good about.
Taking the opportunity to advocate for more frequent busses. Given all the supposedly terrible things that public sector unions are supposed to do why not throw a bone of more bus drivers?
I agree at all levels and it does seem like a sensible thing t do, but OTOH kids have to carry arund stuff (and they can get lost!) but is a Metro fare card that much trouble?
This is a WMATA specific concern: the MTA has adapted pretty much all transit options for direct tap-to-pay (Visa, Mastercard, and the associated “Wallets”) with OMNY, so the specific question of a transit pass ends up besides the point. You don’t have to load money onto an arbitrary pass you keep on your phone, you can just tap your phone (or watch) and be done with it. As a New Yorker who has spent a lot of time in DC, this strikes me as a way in which we’re well ahead.
Unrelated to the articles main point, but I thought that most of the Apple Watch’s features required having an iPhone nearby. How does your son use one without a smartphone?
Apple Watch For Your Kids was designed to make the watch useable without needing an iPhone
Thanks, I did not realize that feature existed
I grew up on uptown New Orleans, which is a relatively small place. It wasn’t until much later in life I appreciated the freedom I had from about 10 years old. I could ride my bike almost anywhere I wanted to go (school, my friends), and if I really needed to I could take the streetcar all the way downtown. As an adult I live in Atlanta, where we are all slaves to our cars. I miss that freedom.
This is about as culturally alien to many suburban parents as an article on the virtue of good, hard spankings would be in Norrhwest DC..
When I was a kid, we all got golf carts to drive around the ~80 miles of paths connecting every area of Peachtree City. It was great. I think you had to be 14 so a bit older than Matt’s kids but being able to move around independently on the somewhat safer cart paths a few years before being allowed to drive was great.
I'll mostly second the point while disagreeing. My local bus system (PVTA - basically the I-91 corridor in MA) is safe for children to ride, and is a massively valuable enhancement for our children's ability to get around. But the area is more suburban than urban - which means bikes are ALSO a good option and complement the bus, and you can ride a bike to the store or to school without it being stolen. So disagreement - I think suburban area can support busses too.
I mean, yes, the bus isn't as middle-class as I am. Last week I rode the bus (ironically, to pick up my car from the mechanic) and I think I heard the n-word every minute the whole ride. But no one was angry/upset/fighting - people were gracious about letting people past, moving to free up seats,a nd etc.
I think it would be a good feature, but I'm confused about what the issue is with just carrying a WMATA card (which is what I do as a grown up)
If your middle schooler can consistently keep track of their physical card, congratulations I guess but you don't have to be smug about it.
I'm a grown ass adult and putting cards on my phone has been a lifesaver.
Agreed. Less time spent on electronic devices the better, myself included
Kids get free rides on their special card as well (I’m a little unclear on whether those rides are just for school or not)
I agree! My little transit agency just announced free passes for anyone under 18. It's a physical card. I think this is preferable! I don't want my kid on the phone. I guess it's fine if they do an electronic one too, but I am not convinced a problem actually exists.
I believe I'd always feel a bit edgy about my grandkids using DC busses. The chances of problems are likely minimal. But they're also maybe five times as great as other possibilities. But I grew up in non-public transit areas. Here in Alexandria we have school busses, and it's okay to ride a bike, too.
> maybe five times as great
Based on…?
To this point, no one has hung a hammock up in my car and tried to stab the driver asking them to take it down, unlike the X2 bus (RIP).
The biggest issue with the crosstown buses is the timing is terrible, but you get a lot of problems on a couple of the lines.
I mean, surely the most likely issue for either is an accident? Do we know rates of accidents with injuries?
I think the real solution here is not so much to make this one hyper-specific change as to make smartphones more customizable in general. It’s weird to me that pre-set parental controls are the only realistic options to limit use to pre-approved apps.
sounds like you need an android.