This week the San Marino Patch featured a story from local mom Lisa Montano who decided to buck the parental trend of playing permanent taxi driver and instead let Metro do the driving.

Metro Line 79 serves San Marino along Huntington Drive and Montano takes advantage of the route to bring her daughter to school, the library and nearby lunch spots. Her daughter can’t get enough of it, and for mom it’s a chance to slow down and appreciate a new perspective of the world – a world where the small things, like crunching leaves on the sidewalk and the sound of clock chimes, have a renewed importance.

This passage in particular got me thinking about what children attached to their car seats might be missing:

In your car you might catch a glimpse of the tulip tree whizzing past, but you miss the smell and a good look at the flowers. We’ve driven passed [sic] San Marino’s Centennial Clock many times, but this time as we stood under it waiting to cross the street the clock struck one o’clock and the bells chimed. “I’ve never heard a clock chime before!” said my daughter in disbelief.

The good news is that it seems like more people are becoming aware of Metro and more parents are introducing their children to public transit.

Last year our own Jody Litvak wrote a three part guide entitled “Back to school on transit” meant as transit primer for parents:

• Back to school — on public transit (part 1)
• Back to school on transit (part 2); what to consider before putting your kids on transit
• Back to school on transit (part 3); now that you’ve decided to let your kid use transit…