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Any UCLA student, staff or faculty member knows how stressful
commuting to campus can be. There are simply too many cars and not
enough parking spots to go around ““ and those who are lucky
enough to get a spot are being gouged at a rate of $6 a day. The
overcrowding will only get worse in the coming years with Tidal
Wave II, and UCLA simply can’t keep building more parking
spaces to keep up with demand.
Enter the BruinGo! program. BruinGo! allows students, staff and
faculty to ride the Santa Monica Big Blue Bus for free with a swipe
of their Bruin Card. In its first year of operation, the program
served over 7,900 fare-free rides on a typical weekday ““ or
one ride for every six students and one ride for every fifteen
staff and faculty. This translates into a 51 percent increase in
daily student bus trips, and a 73 percent increase in daily faculty
and staff bus rides as a result of BruinGo!
As a result, the demand for campus parking on a typical weekday
fell by 1,380 spaces. When compared to the $44 million UCLA will
spend on building nearly 1,500 parking spaces underneath the
intramural field, the $810,000 it cost to run BruinGo! ““ the
cost of building just 20 parking spaces ““ last year seems
like, well mere bus fare.
But despite the obvious successes of the BruinGo! program, its
future is uncertain ““ the decision to save or slay BruinGo!
is now beyond Mark Stocki, director of Transportation Services.
That decision lies with Chancellor Albert Carnesale. It’s no
secret that Transportation Services has accumulated a large debt
paying for current and past parking structures, and Carnesale may
balk at the Big Blue Bus increasing their bus fare from 50 to 75
cents ““ thus increasing the projected cost of the BruinGo!
program by 50 percent for next year. But what Carnesale and
Transportation Services can’t afford is to let down the 7,900
students, staff and faculty who currently depend on the free bus
ride each day.
If Carnesale wants what’s best for the 69,000 students,
staff and faculty who are eligible for the program, then he will
heed the suggestions of both GSA and USAC and choose to keep
BruinGo! running ““ no matter what the cost.
With the cost of housing in Westwood at an all-time high, more
and more students ““ particularly graduate students ““
are unable and unwilling to pay the high rent costs and are moving
out of the Village. Add to this the difficulty of obtaining a
parking permit, at least while the IM field parking lot is still
under construction, and it’s no wonder why more and more
students are depending on the bus to get to UCLA.
BruinGo! will also help ease the influx of students from Tidal
Wave II. There will be more students at UCLA than ever before, and
they will be fighting for the same number of parking spots, further
driving the cost of parking even higher.
BruinGo! represents the most cost-effective way of getting
people to and from UCLA. It would be irresponsible for Carnesale to
scrap the program, particularly at a time when UCLA’s parking
and transportation resources are stretched thin. The responsible
action would be to keep the BruinGo! program running and expand the
subsidized bus rides to include the MTA and Culver City bus lines.
Both companies are well aware of the success that BruinGo! has had
with the Big Blue Bus and are ready and willing to serve UCLA next
year.
The only question that remains is, will Carnesale be willing to
step up and save BruinGo!, or will he pull the program and sit idly
as UCLA’s transportation and parking problems spiral out of
control?