UCLA Housing should provide shuttle service to LAX during finals week

The trip from UCLA to Los Angeles International Airport and back costs about half the price of a plane ticket for a round-trip flight to the Bay Area.

To alleviate the high costs for students, UCLA Housing ran shuttles that costed $5 to LAX on the Tuesday and Wednesday before Thanksgiving break last year.

Karen Hedges, the assistant director for residential life, called the Thanksgiving shuttles a success, saying they were completely full. In fact, the shuttles sold out a couple days before their departures and many students were not able to secure a ticket.

I took the shuttle and it was extremely convenient boarding the bus right outside my dorm and being taken directly to my terminal for a low price.

However, instead of continuing shuttle service to LAX during winter and spring finals week, UCLA Housing decided to allocate its resources to shuttle students to The Grove, downtown Los Angeles and the Original Farmers Market every Saturday on a rotating basis.

Instead of spending students’ housing payments on tourism throughout Los Angeles, Housing should first focus on saving students money by providing transportation to LAX and then using the remaining money for buses to explore the city.

To accommodate student needs, the shuttle should run Wednesday, Thursday and Friday of finals week every four hours. One of the multitude of shuttle options would coincide with almost every student’s flight, providing travelers with effortless transportation to LAX.

Unfortunately, in the absence of shuttles, for financially struggling college students, Uber and Lyft have become the most viable modes of transportation to and from LAX. Although the ride-sharing services are acclaimed for their relatively low rates, prices can rise higher than $60 for an UberX to the airport during rush hour.

In addition, it’s often challenging for students to find other students whose flights are within a reasonable time frame in which splitting an Uber would make sense. However, if UCLA Housing ran shuttles to and from the airport, it would eliminate the barrier of one’s flight time by expanding the search for students with similar departure times to the entire undergraduate population instead of just one’s group of friends.

First-year mechanical and aerospace engineering student Aly Dembry said, “I would definitely take a UCLA shuttle even if it meant spending an extra hour or two at the airport because of imperfect shuttle times, because it’s significantly less expensive.”

First-year civil and environmental engineering student Gabe Blum said he can’t see why students wouldn’t take advantage of a possible UCLA shuttle service to the airport. “It’s convenient, efficient and much cheaper than other modes of transportation.”

Despite these advantages, Hedges opposes extending the same successful shuttle to the time right before and after winter and spring breaks because of students not needing the shuttles due to differing spring-break plans.

Yet, a considerable number of students go home for spring break, leaving them in need for transportation.

Hedges recommended students take the $10 FlyAway shuttle, but Parking Structure 32, where the shuttle picks up passengers, is 1.3 miles from Hedrick Hall and 1 mile from De Neve Plaza. This is a fairly easy distance for the average UCLA student to walk, but considering luggage and the uphill gradient on the return trip to the hill, the trip becomes impractical. If one wanted to Uber or Lyft to Parking Structure 32, it would typically cost $6 to $7 each way, summing up to around $35 round trip, including the FlyAway. Thus, the cheapest and most direct form of transportation would be a shuttle from UCLA costing students $10 both ways.

For students who wish to explore Los Angeles, many bus lines that connect the city and stop in Westwood Village – a manageable walking distance, especially considering that one would not be carrying luggage. However, public transportation options to LAX are not feasible for students with bags.

A shuttle to LAX would provide a great convenience to students financially, but unfortunately Housing doesn’t see a need for it.

UCLA Housing should provide buses for students to the airport to make the end of finals week a little less hectic. Students should look forward to coming home, not dread getting to the airport.