I’m almost half done with college and I’ve still never used the UCLA shuttles or the UCLA Evening Van Service.
It isn’t like I have this great love for hiking up and down our hills. It’s because the system is either confusing or designed in a way as to never really cross the paths of most of the students shuffling up to the dorms.
Now this could either be because the Office of Residential Life has neglected to inform us of anything transportation-related or because the services, in a bizarre manner, have decided to steer clear of the dormitories and the students without any motor-driven transport.
When the Campus Express program started in 1987, it was just a few vans carrying students back and forth from Westwood parking lots. But in just a year, it expanded to include buses and additional routes.
Today, we all see the mysterious UCLA buses scooting around Westwood, but where is it exactly that they stop?
I boarded one of the buses, but got lost when I discovered that ““ in spite of it being a central point on campus and the main bus stop for UCLA ““ our own campus service does not even stop at Ackerman Turnaround. My whole idea of having one run from the dorms to Westwood started seeming way too ambitious.
“The Northwest Shuttle goes from the dorms (Hedrick Hall) to Macgowan Hall, where students can then connect to other shuttles,” said Shannon Anderson, transit manager of UCLA Campus Express. “At this time, there just is not enough funding (to) service the dorms more.”
So if I wanted to go to Ralphs to buy a case of water, I would have to make sure it was between 11:30 a.m. and 2 p.m. on a weekday. My water and I would then board a shuttle for Macgowan and then, having arrived there, transfer buses to get to Hedrick and then still haul the water on foot to Rieber Terrace.
The itinerary looks more like instructions for a trip to Belgium and back, not a way to get grocery shopping done.
The thing is that we don’t really need buses back and forth between campus and the dorms, but we could use shuttles from apartments located on streets that are farther away such as Veteran.
One of the most traveled routes is from the dorms to Westwood, but that’s been largely ignored by the Campus Express program, too.
“I take the shuttle once a week but that is to get to work,” said Andrea Nguyen, a third-year communication studies student.
“I live back on Landfair and it takes a while to walk to my classes (on North Campus). The bus stops are not centrally located and the routes are not very spread out.”
There seems to be a strange underground culture revolving around these shuttles. Some Bruins swear by them, while others aren’t even aware of how exactly to go about using them.
“I take it every day,” said third-year political science student Sanjay Rupani. “I live south of Wilshire so it would take me 45 minutes to get to campus. With the bus, it takes 10.”
“I don’t even know where it is,” said second-year communication studies student Tanyawan Wongapichart, speaking of the Campus Express. “I don’t think very many people use it.”
The closest thing we have to perfection here is the Evening Van Service that comes around every 15-20 minutes and has a really comprehensive route covering everything from Melnitz to Midvale.
But before running to the closest stop, make sure it’s not light out and that it isn’t Friday, Saturday or Sunday.
Sanity would force one to argue that weekends would be the obvious choice for most students to venture out to Westwood at night. It only makes the most sense to make sure that we have access to the Evening Van Service during the weekends ““ especially the weekends.
I am not asking to be carried forth to my classes on a palanquin, but taking a shuttle to Noodle Planet instead of walking more than two miles to dinner would be nice.
We know it isn’t impossible to make our way around Westwood or to and from the apartments and class, but since UCLA already has a campus transportation system in operation, it is only a matter of expanding an existing service in order to make it truly function well and cater to all Bruins.
Of course, the possibility of the entire campus suddenly finding themselves 10 pounds heavier from the lack of walking if the system were ever to be implemented could be the topic of another column.
If you’ve seen but never been on a campus shuttle, e-mail Joshi at rjoshi@media.ucla.edu. Send general comments to viewpoint@media.ucla.edu.