On-campus parking problem persists

As students rushed to turn in payments for their spring 2004
parking permits before the Feb. 19 deadline, a problem constantly
brewing behind the scenes at UCLA was once again thrust into the
spotlight.

With the number of parking applicants again greatly exceeding
the number of spaces available, not everyone got a spot.

But some say the problem is not a lack of parking spaces but a
lack of alternatives to driving.

UCLA’s parking problem would be more efficiently solved by
developing alternative forms of transportation, said Donald Shoup,
an urban studies professor who has conducted extensive research on
the campus’s transportation systems.

Historically, UCLA has focused most of its resources into
building new parking lots, sometimes at the expense of alternative
transportation programs.

Parking is a problem at every University of California campus,
but it is arguably the most pressing at UCLA, the campus with the
largest undergraduate student body and the highest number of
parking spaces.

To reduce the number of people who drive to school, some say
UCLA should take an approach similar to that of other UC campuses,
making other methods of transportation more convenient and
available to students.

Every UC campus has programs geared toward reducing the number
of people who drive.

At UCLA, public transit is the most utilized form of alternative
transportation, with about 7,500 students regularly riding buses to
get to and from campus.

Like every campus except Riverside, UCLA has a program that
subsidizes students’ bus fares.

BruinGo! allows anyone with a BruinCard to ride the Santa Monica
Big Blue Bus and Culver City bus lines for a reduced fare, and has
lowered the number of parking applications, according to
Transportation Services reports on the program.

Similar programs at other UC campuses have been successful and
do not require students to pay any bus fare.

The UC Davis campus has a public transit program, Unitrans,
which is run almost entirely by students and serves as the city of
Davis’ public transit system.

Every day, about 7,500 Davis students ““ approximately 32
percent of Davis’ undergraduates ““ use Unitrans, said
Anthony Palmere, manager of the system.

Student fares are subsidized through grants from the city of
Davis, as well as through a charge added to the university’s
undergraduate student fees. An insignificant amount of funding is
generated from fares of non-student riders, because the bus system
is utilized predominantly by students, Palmere said.

It should be noted that Davis is dwarfed by Los Angeles, and
that the UC’s ownership of the city of Davis makes it easier
for such programs to be implemented.

UCLA’s BruinGo! program was subsidized entirely by revenue
from parking permits and parking tickets until fall 2003, when
Transportation Services added a co-payment of $0.25.

Transportation Services will spend about $800,000 on BruinGo! in
the 2003-2004 school year, compared to the approximately $1.3
million spent last year without the co-pay.

To put this in perspective, construction of Lot 7 cost
Transportation Services about $38.8 million dollars, about $32,000
for every parking space in the lot.

Shoup also criticized the co-payment and UCLA’s methods of
delegating its resources, noting the cost of about 30 spaces in Lot
7 could subsidize BruinGo! for one year.

Shoup said the most efficient way to solve the problem of how
students, staff and faculty get to and from school is not by
building new parking lots.

By spending less on parking and more on BruinGo! and other
alternative transportation programs, Transportation Services could
get more people to campus each day for a cheaper price, he
said.

With 22,000 parking spaces, UCLA currently has the third-highest
number of spots of any university in the United States.

If UCLA meets its target of building 3,000 additional parking
spaces, it will have more than any university in the United States,
and possibly the world, Shoup said.

The availability of parking causes people to want to drive, said
Brian Taylor, a member of the Transportation Services Advisory
Board.

In contrast to UCLA, UC Berkeley has fewer than 10,000 parking
spaces and a lower rate of people who drive than UCLA.

And, at Berkeley, the number of students who drive to school is
less than 15 percent of its undergraduate student body. About half
of Berkeley’s faculty and staff drive to work alone
regularly, according to a report published on the city of
Berkeley’s transportation Web site.

About 22 percent of UCLA students drive alone, said
Transportation Services Director Renee Fortier.

In addition to BruinGo!, UCLA offers discounted parking permit
rates to car- and van-poolers.

Other UC campuses offer similar discounts, but some go
farther.

UC Irvine is one of several UC campuses, excluding UCLA,
offering incentives beyond cheaper parking permits to those who use
alternative transportation.

Students who bring one or more passengers to campus with them
can go to any campus kiosk and receive a dollar bill for each day
they carpool. A student who carpools every day can make about $20 a
month.

Faculty and graduate students can choose between Irvine cash
““ good at any vendor on campus, similar to money on a
BruinCard account ““ or free daily parking permits when their
usual method of transportation is something other than driving
alone, Burns said.

Other UC campuses provide a pack of discounted daily parking
permits for students, faculty and staff who regularly use
alternative transportation.

Shoup said if UCLA Transportation continues to focus its
resources on building more parking rather than developing and
sustaining alternatives to driving, UCLA’s problem of people
getting to campus will continue to be extremely costly.

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