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Campus Express shuttle routes are being redesigned, affecting a large portion of the student popu

Student input into the future of a Transportation Services program utilized more than a million times each year by the UCLA community is limited to the voices of two.

UCLA Transportation Services may redesign the campus shuttle routes next year, which could shorten waiting time but lengthen walking time between stops.

The final decision is pending approval of the Transportation Services Advisory Board, a campus group of students and faculty with whom transportation consults, said Director of Transportation Services Renee Fortier. Transportation Services will present to the board early this month.

Some students question whether the approval of the two student representatives on the advisory board qualifies as adequate student consultation.

Some said transportation should give them more input into the process.

But Fortier said student input was considered.

“Students are on the Transportation Advisory Board and are a part of that review process,” Fortier said.

She added that transportation had also conducted a survey earlier this year which identified the most frequently used stops.

The Wilshire Center, which accounts for over 50 percent of all campus shuttle boardings, will be serviced by an express shuttle that will only stop at the Neuropsychiatric Institute building and on Charles Young Drive North, said Fortier.

A new stop will be added at the Weyburn Terrace Graduate Student Housing area, and some less frequently used stops along the main campus route will be eliminated.

But Fortier would not specify which stops will be eliminated, or exactly what the proposed route changes are, despite numerous requests for this information.

“The story really is a little premature,” Fortier said. “We are still in the process of finalizing what the stops will be and what the effective dates will be.”

She added transportation will publish an ad in the Daily Bruin detailing the changes once the decision is finalized.

The campus shuttle will cost

Transportation Services an estimated $2.3 million for the 2003-2004 fiscal year, Fortier said. Transportation spends about $30 million on various programs each year.

For comparison, transportation will spend an estimated $800,000 on BruinGo!, the campus program that subsidizes the fares of BruinCard holders when they ride certain bus lines.

Transportation made a small change to one of the routes already this year, when the main campus shuttle route was diverted to make a left turn on Kinross Avenue instead of Wilshire Boulevard when heading north from the Wilshire Center.

Shuttle drivers said making a left at Kinross instead of Wilshire saved an average of 5 to 10 minutes each round-trip, and the decision to change the route was made for time and efficiency reasons.