After fears for its future were raised earlier this fall,
BruinGo! ““ the UCLA transportation program which allows
students to ride the Big Blue Bus at a discounted price ““
will remain as part of a new agreement.
The university’s contract with the local bus service
expired last July, and as negotiations over the BruinGo! program
began, it became clear that Big Blue Bus officials were
dissatisfied.
The main issue at stake was the fact that students were not
always putting their 25 cents into the fare box.
The program allows students, faculty and staff to ride for only
a quarter when they swipe their BruinCard.
In August, bus officials said they were not willing to go
uncompensated for the loss, said Renee Fortier, director of UCLA
Transportation Services.
Initial predictions were that there was a five percent
non-compliance rate, but after an undercover survey by the Big Blue
Bus was conducted, it was found to be closer to 15 percent, Fortier
said.
“In the interests of getting the program to continue for
the rest of the year with only a 25 cent co-payment, we agreed to
cover that charge,” Fortier said. The standard charge for
riding the Big Blue Bus is 75 cents.
The two parties agreed on a tentative two-year contract which
will provide some stability for transportation services officials
so that they can know how much money needs to be allocated to Big
Blue Bus subsidies every year, Fortier said.
An important caveat to the contract is that UCLA will be able to
conduct its own survey in the fall to see if there has been any
change in compliance.
Until then, UCLA will be accruing the additional funds from
Parking Services revenue.
“The one thing that we would ask is that students please
start, or continue, using the co-payment. When we conduct the
survey this next fall, I’m really hoping we come in under 5
percent,” Fortier said.
Sam Corbett, manager of Transportation Planning and Policy, said
he suspects there are a variety of reasons students are not
dropping their 25 cents into the fare box.
“It varies from driver to driver. Not all drivers are
equal … sometimes they are in a rush and wave people on;
sometimes students are having problems with their cards. Hopefully
we’ll have a large enough sample next fall when we do a more
comprehensive survey,” Corbett said.
Along with negotiating the terms of the BruinGo! program,
transportation services officials have also been in talks with the
Los Angeles Metro transit service.
The university hopes to be a test site for the Metro’s
smart card program in the 2007-2008 school year, Corbett said.
A smart card would work similar to a debit card, where each time
it was passed through the fare box it would be recorded and debit
funds from the card’s account. The smart card would be able
to be used for the Metro’s bus, rail and subway systems.
UCLA already maintains a ridership program with the Metro bus
service in which students, staff and faculty can purchase
discounted bus tickets for the quarter, Fortier said.
Fourth-year anthropology student Lisa Newon, said that in her
time at UCLA she has often taken advantage of the BruinGo! program
to take the Big Blue Bus into Santa Monica and to the beach.
“I don’t really use it for necessity, it’s
more for recreation,” Newon said.
She also added that she remembered when the program allowed
students to ride for free and that it was more
“convenient” because you didn’t have to scour
your pockets for a quarter.
After the rate was changed to 25 cents, Newon said she has
always had to pay the fare, though there have been times that she
has taken the Metro and been waved through by bus drivers.