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A red umbrella sheltered Silvia Matias and her 3-year old daughter Maria from a light December drizzle. With Maria wrapped around her back, Matias waited for the 73 AC Transit Bus at the Eastmont Transit Center in East Oakland.
“Thanks to God and the bus, I can get anywhere,” said the 23-year-old, who uses AC Transit every day to run errands and get her 6-year-old son to and from school.
Matias doesn’t have a Clipper card, the fare-payment system accepted by all Bay Area transit agencies, so she pays with cash. A day pass for herself costs $6 and $3 for her son — amounting to a budget of $45 a week, which adds up for the single mom…