Shoup is chair of the Urban planning department and director of
the Institute of Transportation Studies at UCLA. Illustration by
JASON CHEN/Daily Bruin Senior Staff
By Donald Shoup
Singer Joni Mitchell once said, “You don’t know what
you’ve got ’til it’s gone. They paved paradise
and put up a parking lot.”
Now imagine a university program that helps thousands of
students get to campus, saves money, reduces traffic, cleans the
air, conserves fuel and is easy to use. UCLA offers this program
““ it’s called BruinGO.
UCLA provides BruinGO in partnership with Santa Monica’s
Blue Bus. Students, staff and faculty simply swipe their BruinCards
as they board the bus, and UCLA pays Santa Monica 45 cents per ride
taken. Five other UC campuses ““ Berkeley, Davis, San Diego,
Santa Barbara and Santa Cruz ““ also allow students to ride
public transit for free. On each campus, transit ridership has
increased, parking demand has decreased and students have more
transportation options.
BruinGO benefits thousands of UCLA students, and it will also
help to recruit new students. UCLA’s transportation image now
centers on horror stories that prospective students hear about the
difficulty of finding a place to park. By reducing the demand for
parking, BruinGO makes more spaces available for students who drive
to campus and it provides a valuable option for those who
don’t drive. Since all bus rides ““ not just trips to
campus ““ are free, BruinGO also gives students access to an
incredible array of cultural and educational opportunities in Los
Angeles.
More than 1,100 buses arrive at UCLA every weekday and students
can ride to the Getty Center, Santa Monica, Venice or the beach all
for free.
BruinGO is a pilot program that UCLA has financed with a
one-time allocation of $1 million for this academic year, and there
is no guarantee that funds will be available to offer it next year.
Where will the money come from?
One way to pay for BruinGO in the future is with money that UCLA
would otherwise spend to build parking structures. For example,
consider the current proposal to spend
$44 million to construct 1,500 parking spaces beneath the
intramural fields ““ a cost of $29,000 per parking space. The
debt payments alone for this parking structure would be $2.6
million a year for 27 years. In contrast, UCLA pays only $1 million
a year to provide free public transportation for everyone on
campus.
We should not build an expensive parking structure without first
evaluating BruinGO as an alternative strategy. Fortunately, the
Environmental Impact Report for the proposed IM Field Parking
Structure provides the data we need to compare parking construction
with BruinGO. If this structure is built, the 1,500 new parking
spaces will add 12 million miles of vehicle travel per year to and
from campus. This added vehicle travel will pump 105 tons of
pollution emissions into the air every year.
Beyond these impacts of using the parking structure,
constructing it will require excavating the 10-acre site to a depth
of 31 feet. Removing 222,000 cubic yards of earth will require
26,000 truck trips along Gayley Avenue, Weyburn Avenue, Veteran
Avenue and Wilshire Boulevard (with a peak of 63 truck trips per
hour).
In contrast, BruinGO reduces parking demand, vehicle trips and
pollution emissions. Free public transit also helps students save
money. And while the new parking spaces would not be available
until 2003, BruinGO is operating now.
Should UCLA cancel BruinGO next year and use the money to build
a parking structure, or continue to offer free public transit?
Chancellor Carnesale has told the Academic Senate that
“Our budget should reflect our strategy.” The budget
for the proposed IM Field Parking Structure shows that UCLA plans
to construct 1,500 parking spaces that cost $29,000 each, lose
money on the project, and increase vehicle travel to campus by 12
million miles a year.
What transportation strategy does this budget reflect? An
alternative strategy is to continue BruinGO next year, expand it to
include the Culver City Bus and the MTA, advertise the program and
evaluate the results.
UCLA began offering BruinGO in September 2000, and by November
2000 the student wait list for parking declined by one-third
compared to the previous year. If an expanded and well-advertised
BruinGO reduces the wait list again next year, UCLA may not need to
spend $44 million for a new parking structure.
With the money saved, UCLA can continue to offer the free public
transit that helps thousands of students get to campus, reduces
traffic, cleans the air, conserves fuel and is easy to use.