By Ryland Lu
For the last week, much commotion has been raised over the Westwood FlyAway bus’ low ridership. According to “FlyAway might leave Westwood” (May 24), the city will be forced to cut the bus unless structural changes are made to the operation.
I have also heard voices in both the Daily Bruin and the Undergraduate Students Association Council call for “improvements” such as a park-and-ride, a campus contribution toward heavy holiday service and even cutting the service altogether, except for breaks and long weekends.
As a student who used the FlyAway service on an “odd” weekend during the current school year, let me say that the latter option not only seems dreadful but out of touch, given the fact that there was a fair amount of people on the bus I took. I likewise believe that a campus contribution is something that the school can’t afford, while the park-and-ride option wouldn’t do much for revenue only because many students don’t own cars in the first place.
Indeed, instead of having to make these hefty sacrifices, why not simply merge the Westwood FlyAway service into the popular Van Nuys route? That is, since UCLA lies directly en route (along the 405) from the valley to the airport, why doesn’t the city make UCLA an intermediate stop on the FlyAway route from Van Nuys to the Los Angeles International Airport?
The city would be able to get rid of the extra buses and relieve itself of the extra driving staff, thereby reducing costs. Additionally, the service to Westwood would be partially subsidized by the increased ridership from Van Nuys, while conversely adding revenue to that service.
Perhaps the city could even show some generosity to our rivals from the University of Southern California by similarly incorporating that campus as a stop on the Union Station route. All in all, the merger would be simultaneously a win for the city, for the Westwood FlyAway and for the Van Nuys FlyAway ““ so long as the city hall bureaucrats have the will to implement it.