Dahle is a USAC general representative.
By David Dahle
UCLA Transportation Services and UCLA administrators need to
prove where their priorities lie. BruinGo!, the program that allows
students and staff to ride the Big Blue Bus for free faces
termination as early as June if students fail to put up an
opposition.
BruinGo! is one of the most beneficial services many students
use on a daily basis. Access to UCLA is becoming more restricted in
an era where the student population is poised to grow because of
Tidal Wave II in the upcoming years. If solutions to transportation
problems are not resolved now, a greater percentage of students in
the future will face daily questions on how to get to campus.
Transportation Services claims it has its hands tied because the
only funds they receive are through issuing parking passes. It is
true that it operates on a nonprofit basis, which means the only
way to increase services is to increase parking fees. But this does
not mean Transportation Services cannot solicit outside funding
sources. In fact, the BruinGo! program has been operating as a
pilot program funded by a grant from the Los Angeles Department of
Transportation. The grant will soon be up, which means that
Transportation Services will have to cut the program if they
can’t find a way to foot the bill or obtain other means of
funding for the program.
If BruinGo! is cut, students will lose the most widely used
alternative method for getting to campus. Transportation Services
seems intent on letting this happen, because it could have found
ways to prevent this problem. It is a researched fact that over
half a million people used BruinGo! as a source of transportation
in the months of October to December.
It is known that this program has been a success not only in
getting people to campus, but also in helping to reduce the amount
of parking needed on a daily basis. Having known this,
Transportation Services could have been more proactive in seeking
out alternative means of funding. It could have sought out more
grants or partnerships, and worked on restructuring its funding
priorities.
Also, having Transportation Services function as an autonomous
university entity is only good if it has the means of supplying
parking and transportation with the funds that it can get. If need
be, the university should step in and find a way to keep BruinGo!
afloat, even if this means sacrificing some of Transportation
Services’ autonomy. I wish that we had the time and resources
in order to figure out the best way to keep BruinGo! running, but
the frightening fact is that there are only a precious few weeks to
convince people that this program should be kept, let alone
evaluate alternatives.
Transportation Services hailed BruinGo! as a great success when
it benefited them, yet the program has been conveniently forgotten
now that the LADTS grant is up. But many people have now patterned
their schedules around the bus lines, and some have even moved to
places with bus lines close by. There is no excuse for
Transportation Services’ inaction on an issue that will
directly affect a huge percentage of the UCLA population.
Demand that BruinGo! be kept running. The burden to provide
access to the university falls on the people running Transportation
Services and ultimately on the UCLA administration.
To help persuade administrative officials, please sign the
online petition at www.petitiononline.com/ucla/petition.html or
sign the petition in person at the USAC General Representatives
Office located in Kerckhoff 308.