By Rachael Straus
Daily Bruin Contributor
The BruinGo! Pilot program, which provides anyone with a
BruinCard free access to the Santa Monica Bus Line, was extended
for another academic year.
Cardholders, however, will not be able to ride free this summer,
but the program will resume in the fall of 2001. The
program’s fate will be determined after a final review at the
end of next year
The decision, announced by Associate Vice Chancellor of Business
and Finance Sam Morabito March 15, was based on positive student
feedback of the BruinGo! program and inconclusive data regarding
bus ridership.
A long-time advocate of bus pass programs, Professor Donald
Shoup, director of the Institute of Transportation Studies, said he
first recommended free access to public transportation to the
University Policies Commission in 1985.
After more than a decade of advocacy, Shoup’s suggestion
finally came to fruition.
But the bottom line in determining if BruinGo! will be
permanently instituted centers on whether it is cheaper to
subsidize a program or build parking spaces to ameliorate
transportation concerns.
“I have mixed emotions (about BruinGo!),” said Mark
Stocki, director of UCLA Transportation Services. “I really
like the program but I also have to be concerned with funding.
We’re going to have to do some serious gymnastics to come up
with the money.”
As of Feb. 23, more than 700,000 swipes have been recorded for
the program, according to Stocki.
“Even though the current numbers didn’t show
substantial increases in ridership, after extensive discussions we
decided that we need two or three more quarters of data,” he
said.
Part of the reason the data on program is inconclusive is
because marketing for BruinGo! commenced only shortly before the
fall quarter began.
“The bus technology which can read the BruinCard
wasn’t ready until weeks before fall quarter so we
couldn’t market well in advance,” Stocki said.
Marketing plans for next year include sending information about
the BruinGo! program in registration packets and sending e-mails to
the UCLA community before they make their transportation
arrangements for the year.
Shoup, along with doctoral students Jeffrey Brown and Daniel
Hess, have studied how transit-pass programs across the country
have resulted in increased student ridership, reduced parking
demands and improved access to campus and cultural events.
In light of growing college enrollment coupled with a lack of
dorm rooms, university students are increasingly forced to commute
to campus. Thus, according to Shoup, a university’s
competitiveness is increasingly contingent upon transportation
programs.
“I think (BruinGo!) helps to attract and retain
students,” he said. “One of the things it does is
directly provide financial aid to the students whereas if they
build a new parking structure everything goes to outsiders like
contractors and construction crews.”
More than 35 colleges and university throughout the nation have
established programs providing students with free access to public
transportation.
BruinGo! is unique because of fare box technology that can read
the BruinCard and enables a pay-as-you-go program.
The fare box technology collects ridership data each time a
BruinCard is swiped on the Big Blue Bus and can determine the bus
route number, whether the rider is a student, faculty or staff,
which direction the rider is heading, and what time and date the
rider boarded the bus.
“BruinGo! is among the least expensive university transit
programs because Santa Monica lines are so economical and because
UCLA doesn’t have to pay a fixed fee,” Shoup said.
UCLA students, faculty and staff sent more than 1,000 e-mails
praising the program to the Institute of Transportation Studies.
Comments addressed environmental concerns, housing opportunities,
financial aid, transportation equity and access to campus and
cultural events in their approbation of the pilot program.
“To give this option to students, staff and faculty is a
nice token given by the university saying that they recognize the
impossible parking situation on campus,” said Douglas
Kolozsvari, Graduate Student Association Representative on the
Transportation and Parking Advisory Committee.
Additionally, Shoup suggests extending BruinGo! to the Culver
City Bus Line and improving the conditions of bus stops in Westwood
by providing more seating, lighting and sheltered areas.
Stocki said his belief that current bus riders in Santa Monica
would continue to use public transportation with or without the
BruinGo! program because it costs a mere 50 cents per ride.
Furthermore, there aren’t enough people in Santa Monica that
would have even the beginning of an impact on us deciding whether
to build parking inventory, Stocki said.
The program, which is currently budgeted at $1 million from
Parking Services, is hoping to secure grants from the Metropolitan
Transit Authority and the Environmental Protection Agency for next
year’s budget.
Suggestions have included voting on an additional registration
fees to support the BruinGo! program.
Shoup questioned why funding is so hard to come by for a bus
pass program but so easy to acquire for new parking structures.
“The cost of 23 parking spaces (in the proposed new
structure) is enough to pay for free public transit for a
year,” he said.
The final decision whether to establish the program permanently
will be based on the degree of increased ridership on the Santa
Monica Bus Lines and the procurement of necessary funds.
UCLA Bus Ridership Student, faculty and staff
swipes on the Big blue Bus by route from Sept.20, 2000 through
Feb.23, 2001. SOURCE: UCLA transportation services, Big Blue Bus
website Original graphic by CONNIE WU/Daily Bruin Senior Staff Web
adaptation by MIKE OUYANG/Daily Bruin