A really cool thing happened to me over Thanksgiving break. What
happened, you ask? Did I get an A on a paper? No. Did I win the
lottery? I wish. Did President Bush resign? Seriously folks! OK,
since we’re having trouble guessing, I’ll tell you what
happened.
Like many UCLA students, I had a plane ticket to fly home for
the break. Unlike many UCLA students, I waited until the last
minute to reserve a shared van ride to the airport. As you can
probably guess, all of the airport shuttle companies were booked. I
procrastinated, and I got what I deserved. Or did I?
In my panic to find a replacement for the twenty-dollar van ride
I had planned on taking, I stumbled upon a much cheaper and better
alternative: the Culver CityBus.
The bus? That’s it? That’s my great exciting story?
I know, I know, but please, try and save your cynicism until after
you’ve finished reading this column.
That’s right, folks, the Culver CityBus. The goal of my
writing this column is for every person who reads it to never take
a shared-ride van service to the airport ever again. Shared-ride
vans are slow, uncomfortable and ridiculously expensive.
Cost-wise, it’s no contest. The Culver CityBus costs a
mere 75 cents as opposed to Super Shuttle and Prime Time
Shuttle’s $20 fare. The Culver City Bus is hands down the
superior choice.
Time-wise, the Culver CityBus is also a winner. Super Shuttle
and Prime Time Shuttle base your pickup time off of your
flight’s departure time and force you to choose from only a
few pickup times that are usually around three hours before your
departure time. The bus, on the other hand, leaves every 10 minutes
from the Culver CityBus stop at Ackerman turnaround. This allows
you much more flexibility when deciding what time to leave.
Moreover, the bus takes exactly the same amount of time to get
to the airport as the van services do, give or take a few
minutes.
The bus takes city streets, mainly following Sepulveda, and
makes a stop every few blocks. Even at the busiest traffic times of
the day, the Sepulveda route is still much clearer than the 405. I
can attest to that as I left right in the middle of Thanksgiving
rush hour traffic on Wednesday evening and found the traffic on
Sepulveda to be very light. The bus takes almost exactly an hour to
get to LAX from campus.
The shuttles, on the other hand, make up to six stops anywhere
around the general Westwood area to pick up other passengers before
they even begin the long journey through heavy I-405 traffic to the
airport. They also take around an hour.
Another reason for the bus’ superiority over the shared
van services is space. In the vans, you get crammed like sardines
into small seven-seater vans with everyone’s luggage and
limbs crowding each other’s space.
The bus, on the other hand, has plenty of space for you to
spread out and relax. At its fullest during my evening route, it
was only about half full ““ and that was only for a few stops.
For most of the way there were only seven or eight people on the
whole bus. You don’t have to worry about missing your stop,
either, because the bus makes a long, scheduled stop at the
terminal next to the airport.
There’s only one reason left why anyone would ever want to
take a shuttle: convenience. The bus, unlike the vans,
doesn’t come directly to your place to pick you up ““
you have to walk to the bus stop to use it. I personally made the
long, grueling walk from Gayley Avenue to the Ackerman bus
stop.
It took me all of five minutes, and it saved me 20 bucks. If
you’re lazier than me, then get a ride from a friend to the
bus stop or take another bus to get there ““ the UCLA Campus
Express buses. Yes, these buses also run every 10 minutes, and they
conveniently have stops all around our campus.
In short, the answer seems clear: If you’re looking for a
bargain in terms of money, time and comfort space, common sense
should direct you straight to the Ackerman turnaround the next time
you’re looking for a ride to LAX. And last time I checked,
Christmas is coming up.
Bitondo is a third-year political science and history
student. E-mail him at mbitondo@media.ucla.edu. Send general
comments to viewpoint@media.ucla.edu.