Campus shuttle takes new route

Jennifer Murphy
Published: Sunday, June 27, 2004

From running shuttles to subsidizing bus fares, UCLA Transportation Services offers several options to students for getting to and around campus.

Students use the campus shuttle to transport between destinations on campus, as well as to campus from the Hill and the Wilshire Center.

Buses run about every 8-10 minutes from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. when school is in session, with reduced hours during winter, spring and summer breaks.

Transportation Services recently changed the shuttle routes, eliminating many stops and adding one at the Weyburn Terrace Graduate Student Housing area. The changes took effect late June.

The new routes will not provide service for the most popular route – from the Wilshire Center to Macgowan Hall – forcing students who previously rode the shuttle between these destinations to find a new way of getting around.

Several students said the decision to change routes was made without adequate student input.

Students should have input in decisions that alter the campus shuttle because they are the most affected by these changes, said Yesenia Orozco, a fifth-year psychology student.

“Since we pay for it, we should have a say in it,” Orozco said.

But, Renee Fortier, director of Transportation Services, said student input would be considered in making the changes in a May interview. The input would be considered through consultation with the advisory board, she added.

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

But one of the student representatives on the advisory board disagreed.

“No one had any input,” said Joe Vardner, the undergraduate student representative on the board. “Even the Transportation Services Advisory Board … we were told of the changes,” and not consulted, he said.

Vardner said students should be given more input into Transportation Services’ decisions, saying they operated unlike their counterparts in the outside world.

“In the real world, when a transportation department wants to do something, say, extend a freeway, they will hold town hall meetings all along the proposed path and get input from the community,” he said.

To get to campus many students also use alternate programs run through Transportation Services.

BruinGo! allows anyone with a valid BruinCard ride the Santa Monica Big Blue Bus and the Culver CityBus for a reduced fare.

Students living in the apartments immediately west of campus often use the evening vans to get to and from campus after 6 p.m. The evening vans run through Ackerman Union, Veteran and Kelton avenues .

For more information on these and other transportation services, visit www.transportation.ucla.edu.