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.