Submission: UCLA community must speak up against bus route changes

Our UCLA community prides itself on its commitment to environmental sustainability and inclusion. Both of these commitments, however, are being challenged by bus changes that will impact thousands of the university’s students, staff and faculty. As Metro’s Expo Line moves west, bus lines on the Westside are being changed and we need to speak up to ensure that we are not overlooked in the process.

The most far-reaching of these proposed changes involves the Big Blue Bus’ local 12 line, which is scheduled to change as early as this coming fall. This new plan would move the local 12 bus route about a 20-minute walk east of where the bus currently picks up passengers near University Apartments South. This alteration would seriously impact riders who live on the Sepulveda Boulevard corridor. Needless to say, such an alteration would have a major impact on the significant number of students living in the University Apartments and the surrounding areas if nothing is done to ameliorate this situation.

While we do understand that the Big Blue Bus and neighboring Culver City Bus are not under the purview of UCLA, we know that the UCLA community wields significant influence with local authorities. In fact, we have campus resources dedicated to advancing the interests of UCLA on such issues, from UCLA Transportation Services to the Office of Government and Community Relations. If these institutional bodies – together with the campus – make the Big Blue Bus 12 local corridor a priority we believe this will help sway decisions made by these agencies. A large number of riders on the 12 local are affiliated with UCLA, and we hope the university community and its officials will take firm action to ensure that these proposed changes do not undermine accessibility for many members of our campus.

We assert that the ideal option for UCLA would be to maintain the current route on the Big Blue Bus 12 local. It would be simply unacceptable for UCLA to stand by while bus service declines for students, staff and faculty without finding a better solution.

These proposed changes should also be looked at in a broader context. Indeed, other bus routes may be revisited for potential modification or even cancellation in the future. As the Expo Line redraws the transportation grid on the Westside, bus routes will be rerouted to link up with it. Big Blue Bus recently carried out its own study among its ridership with surveys and town halls and has been discussing changes with the public. Culver City Bus will be getting underway with a similar process soon.

Here at UCLA, we take great pride in our sustainability efforts, Healthy Campus Initiative and efforts toward greater inclusion and accessibility. We believe that ensuring students have access to reliable, affordable and workable public transportation to campus should be part of that commitment.

Failing to unite and take action on such a critical issue would signal dangerous apathy from our fellow Bruins, demonstrating an overall campus-wide disinterest when it comes to working toward issues of general public benefit. We hope we can count on the support of the campus community in our campaign to make mobility to and from campus as sustainable and as equitable as possible.

Daboussi is a graduate student representative on the UCLA Transportation Services Advisory Board.

Hirshman is the Graduate Student Association president.