Transit manager seeks school stop that would cut rides by 40 minutes
A group of high school students is pressing Suffolk, Virginia, for a public bus stop at Nansemond River High School. The Connected Suffolk Coalition was founded by Sean Lorhenz Java, a junior at the school, and its members are almost entirely high school students who coordinate on the messaging app Discord.
Suffolk Transit Manager Maria Ptakowski is now working to get a bus stop onto school grounds, a change she said would cut Java’s commute and other students’ rides by 40 minutes. She said she did not realize when she first heard about the group that she was emailing a high schooler.
“These days, more and more kids are trying to find ways for cars to not be their mode of transportation,” Ptakowski said. “So I think it’s a very impressive thing for a group of high schoolers to be so involved in their community.”
The push started with Java’s own commute. He usually rides the school bus home, but the buses do not run that late, so he relies on other ways to get home, he told member station WHRO. “There are a lot of activities I’m a part of, and I like that,” he said. “But a big barrier to being active in those is actually getting home and getting around places.”
Rides from his mother, Elsienor Java, are not always an option: she works 12-hour shifts as a nurse, and her husband is deployed in the Middle East. Driving home from the school takes Java about 15 minutes. The city bus takes about two hours, because no stop near the school runs toward the family’s neighborhood — the stop across the street goes in a different direction before looping back past the high school.
“He said that he’s willing to join - do after-school activities, but he will take the bus,” Elsienor Java said. “But if he take a bus, he’ll be two hours - right? - two hours.” Java commits to that long ride so he can still do speech and other activities.
The coalition grew out of an online movement Java follows closely. “It’s like a big thing now, urbanist YouTube,” he said, citing channels including Strong Towns, Streetcraft and Not Just Bikes — “all these other groups that are trying to, like, open people’s eyes.” One Strong Towns clip asks viewers to imagine “carrying a week’s worth of groceries on foot, no car, no quick way home, just you, these bags, and a three-mile walk ahead in the Texas heat.”
Java decided to start a group of his own. An archived recording captured him welcoming members to the Connected Suffolk Coalition’s eighth general meeting. “I’m juggling honors chem while doing this, so…” said Cris Ashley Ventura, one of the members.
The group has held events at the public library, where members handed out free bus passes, and it has engaged public officials directly. This month it plans to attend a city council meeting to share its goals. The members want to make it easier and safer to get around without cars, and their central ask is the bus stop at the school.
The students’ campaign fits a broader pattern. Edward Erfurt of the urban planning nonprofit Strong Towns said more and more high schoolers across the country are getting involved. “Students are beginning to realize they can actually go and do things that result in positive change in their community,” he said. Recent surveys show Gen Z and millennials are much more likely to prefer walkability compared with other generations, according to the report.
Java said he can relate to that preference from his car-dependent suburb. “What if I could walk to places or take the bus to places or bike to places?” he said. “And right, now that’s not the case.” Java plans to keep working toward a better-connected city, one bus ride, one email and one conversation at a time.