Riding the city bus: free visual schedule and talk board

Riding the public bus alone means planning, timing, paying, finding a seat and knowing when to get off, and sometimes asking a stranger for help. This free city bus visual schedule shows a trip in eight steps: plan my trip, check the time, go to the bus stop, check the bus number, pay or show my pass, find a seat, ring for my stop, and get off and go. Page 2 has words for the driver, places in town, and taxis or rides; page 3 has two cards to show the driver and a trip card to fill in.

Download the free PDF US Letter, 3 pages, 891 KB

Printing on A4 paper? Download the A4 PDF (3 pages, 892 KB). Or pick one page shape for every page:

Portrait (tall page, 3 pages): US Letter PDF (892 KB) · A4 PDF (892 KB)

Landscape (wide page, 3 pages): US Letter PDF (892 KB) · A4 PDF (892 KB)

Printable city bus visual schedule: eight numbered pictures with arrows: plan my trip, check the time, go to the bus stop, check the bus number, pay or show my pass, find a seat, ring for my stop and get off and go. — Page 1: the eight steps of a bus trip, printed sideways.

Edit this board in the free board maker: change the words and pictures, then print.

Have Tap AAC? Add to Tap AAC (.obz file, 778 KB) · How to add a board

Free
No sign-up
Print as many as you need

New riders and new routes

Teens learning to travel on their own, adults starting a new job or day program, and anyone who rides the bus and talks with a device, a board, writing or signs. It also helps someone who rides the same route every day but freezes when something changes: a detour, a new driver, a missed stop. The pictures are of places and things, so it suits a grown-up.

Practice before the first trip alone

Plan the trip together with the route map or your transit system’s trip planner, and fill in the trip card on page 3: the bus number, the stops, the times and the way back.
Ride it together first, more than once. Point to each step on page 1 as it happens, and let the rider do a little more of it each time.
Practice the questions from page 2 with the driver on a quiet trip: Is this my stop? is easier to ask once you’ve asked it before.
Then ride behind: the rider goes first, you sit further back, and step in only if you’re needed.
Agree on a plan for problems: what to do if the bus doesn’t come, or the stop goes by.

On the bus

Every bus system is a little different: some take cash, some a pass or a card you tap; some have a cord to pull for your stop, some a button. Ask how yours works, and change the steps in the schedule maker if they differ. The card Please tell me when we get to my stop is worth handing to the driver as you get on, with the stop written on it. Sit near the front if you can, where the driver can see you and you can see the stop names.

Taxis and rides

The last row on page 2 is for a taxi, or a ride booked in an app. Please take me to this address, with the address written on the card from page 3, works better than spelling it out in a moving car. Please wait for me and please stop here cover the end of the trip.

Two cards to show: Please tell me when we get to my stop, with a line for the stop, and Please take me to this address, with a line for the address. A trip card to fill in: going to, bus number, leave at, get on at, change buses at, get off at, and going back, bus number and from where. If I get lost, I ask the driver, ask someone who works there, show this card, or stay where it’s safe and busy. I talk with speech, a talker, pictures, writing or signs. A line for someone who knows my trip. — Page 3: two cards to show the driver, and a trip card to fill in.

If something goes wrong

Every rider misses a stop sometimes. I missed my stop and I’m lost are on page 2 so the rider can tell the driver straight away, and the trip card lists what to do next: ask the driver, ask someone who works there, show the card, or stay where it’s safe and busy. In an emergency, call 911 or your local emergency number; our guide to AAC in an emergency covers contacting 911 when you can’t speak, and the “I use AAC” cards explain to strangers how you talk.

The same steps in the schedule maker

Open “City bus” in the schedule maker to add a change of buses, put in a photo of your own bus stop, or make the trip home.

For students

For a student with an IEP in the US, getting around the community can be part of the transition plan for life after school, which the IEP must include from age 16 at the latest. Read AAC and the IEP. For younger riders, there’s the school bus visual schedule.

What it can look like

Jordan is 19 and starting a job at a garden center across town. For two weeks his job coach rode the bus with him, and Jordan filled in his trip card: get on at Elm Street, get off at the mall. On his first day alone he hands the driver the card, Please tell me when we get to my stop, with “Mall” written on the line. The driver nods. Two stops early, Jordan points to Is this my stop? on his board. “Not yet. Next one.”

What’s on the PDF