Ask a Native New Yorker: When Can Kids Ride the Subway Alone?
Jake Dobkin, Gothamist publisher and the author of Ask a Native New Yorker: Hard-Earned Advice on Surviving and Thriving in the Big City (Abrams Image, 2019), answers questions on how to survive in New York City from his perspective as a lifelong New Yorker.
"This is such an important milestone in the life of any New York City kid…. They say you become a man at your bar mitzvah, but I think it’s actually the first time you successfully transfer to the F train at 4th Avenue and get home, which is what I did," says @jakedobkin.
— Brian Lehrer Show (@BrianLehrer) March 5, 2019
And listeners weighed in:
Probably around 5th or 6th grade so like 10/11?
— Ben (@Bensvoice) March 5, 2019
@BrianLehrer I started riding the subway by myself when I was 11 but only in Queens. I knew the stops since I used to ride w/my mom. That was 1971. I started riding to Manhattan when I was 14.
— Tee (@uforje) March 5, 2019
Not a native New Yorker, but grew up in Philly. My parents wouldn't let me ride the subway alone until I was ten or eleven - though I was tall for my age.
— Clarence Patton (@cpattonbkny) March 5, 2019
Importantly, before they let me do it, they gave me 'rules' for proper subway comportment & consideration.
