UCLA considers changes to bike share program after increase in electric scooter use

A rise in electric scooter usage has led to declining ridership of an on-campus bike share program.

The number of electric scooter rides in the United States doubled between 2017 and 2018, according to a report from the National Association of City Transportation Officials. UCLA Transportation said in an email statement this has resulted in declining usage of its Bruin Bike Share program, which allows riders to rent and unlock bikes from one hub and return them to any other hub in Westwood, Beverly Hills, Santa Monica and West Hollywood.

Of the 84 million micromobility trips in 2018, 38.5 million were taken on electric scooters, according to the report. Micromobility refers to small transportation vehicles that go 30 mph or less and are propelled by either humans or electric motors, according to UCLA Transportation.

Electric scooter companies, starting with Bird Rides Inc., first arrived on campus early 2018. Since then, at least five scooter companies have taken root in Westwood, including Lime, Jump and Lyft. The latest arrival, Wheels, first began offering rides in March.

Alison Hewitt, a UCLA spokesperson, said in an email statement that despite the rising popularity of the scooters, the bike share system offers different benefits, such as lower prices.

“The system is still in regular use, and the price point is much lower than the scooters or e-bikes,” she said. “Some people prefer regular bikes to e-bikes, and many people prefer bicycles of any type over scooters.”

UCLA Transportation is considering several changes to its bike share system to mitigate the decrease in ridership, such as a scan-and-go feature which would make it easier for students to unlock the bikes by scanning a QR code on their phone, Hewitt said.

UCLA Transportation said it is also considering developing its own electric scooter line or partnering with preexisting electric scooter companies.

“UCLA could add electric scooters and e-bikes to campus and still retain the existing bike share system, providing even more options for mobility on campus,” Hewitt said. “Seven public transit agencies serve UCLA because one bus does not fit all. That may well be the case with micromobility.”

UCLA Transportation said in the statement that partnering with scooter companies such as Bird and Lime would help the administration improve pedestrian and rider safety on campus.

“We like our campus community to have options, and a formal partnership would provide leverage allowing the university to better ensure the safety of the devices, and to require that the scooter vendors provide an option to obtain a helmet and inform riders of local laws,” Hewitt said.

Several students said they think the rise in electric scooter usage was cause for safety and environmental concern.

Caroline Wang, a fourth-year molecular, cell and developmental biology student, said she thinks bikes are safer and more practical than electric scooters.

“(The scooters are) something that’s low in practicality but high in entertainment,” Wang said. “I think it’s a safety hazard to pedestrians, cars and users since people don’t wear helmets, follow traffic laws or even realize they are actual electric vehicles – some of them treat them as toys.”

Ryan Hallman, a fourth-year environmental science student, said he thinks electric scooters became popular because people assume they are safe to ride.

“Not every individual is capable of safely riding e-scooters,” Hallman said. “Having the scooters publicly available creates a false sense of security for prospective riders – people who can’t ride a bike are unlikely to rent one. However, I think most people assume they’re capable of riding a scooter.”

Hallman added he also thinks electric scooters are not as environmentally beneficial as many may assume.

“E-scooters are marketed as a sustainable alternative to using a car, but they’re more often used as an alternative to walking,” Hallman said.

Addiy Giron, a fourth-year neuroscience student, said she thinks electric scooters have overtaken bike share programs because they are more convenient, but that she is worried about the scooters’ environmental impact and riders’ lack of safety compliance.

Hewitt said UCLA Transportation faced safety concerns from electric scooters early last year but has since then worked to spread awareness of how to properly operate electric scooters.

Panel discusses need for space agriculture as Earth’s climate changes

Scientists will have to improve the feasibility of growing food in space as space travel and colonization become a more realistic future due to increasing climate change, panelists said at an event Tuesday.

Science and Food, a UCLA nonprofit organization which aims to promote knowledge of food science, hosted panelists at “The Future of Food in Extreme Environments” to speak about food in space as part of its annual speaker series.

Amy Rowat, the founder of Science and Food, said promoting scientific discussion of food is important given that traditional ways of growing food may become infeasible due to climate change.

“I could go on about how critical it is to engage in discussions of alternative ways to grow food in space, given the face of climate change and the increasing world population,” Rowat said.

Leon Gold, the son of late LA Times restaurant critic Jonathan Gold, helped develop the event topic and spoke about his longtime interest in food and space. He said food has been historically difficult to transport into extreme environments, particularly in space.

“The first problem is because food is very heavy,” Gold said. “If you can transport water into space, then it’s a lot more efficient than leaving the water in the food.”

Gold said scientists have figured out ways to dehydrate food to transport it more efficiently in space. However, many astronauts have complained the food does not taste good, he said.

“Some astronauts dreaded (the food) so much that the astronaut John Young snuck a corned beef sandwich inside his pocket,” Gold said. “(He would) take a bite out of it during his flight, but then put it back in because it was a crumbly sandwich and could have clogged the air ducts.”

As space missions become longer, food may need to provide more than just nutrition to astronauts. Heather Hava, co-founder and CEO of Autoponics, said food can also increase the morale and productivity of astronauts.

“You are what you eat and variety is the spice of life,” Hava said. “You can have improved palatability, improved food intake, performance and improved mood.”

Hava’s company designed a Mars greenhouse system called Sustainable Integration of Regenerative Outer-space Nature and Agriculture, which features many biological systems such as a food forest and aquaponics that use living organisms to increase the output of the greenhouse. SIRONA also doubles as a living space which includes a kitchen, a bathroom and a deployable sleep structure. She said the integrated greenhouse system aims to maximize nature’s benefits on mental health.

“If you like to go outdoors or you want to destress and go for a run, I want to use (SIRONA) to help astronauts stay healthy,” Hava said. “We can also give them other things like sensory stimulation, improved nutrition, variety and more self-sufficiency.”

Hava said once scientists find how to reliably transport enough food over long distances, they can focus on developing the quality and variety of food.

Traveling to Mars would require a 32- to 34-month mission, said Michele Perchonok, president of the Institute of Food Technologists. Due to the length of the trip, astronauts could face several logistical problems in transporting food, such as shelf life and weight.

Transported food would need to have a shelf life of five to seven years, Perchonok said. Food can also be heavy and cause transportation problems for astronauts. She said food supplies for a crew of six traveling to Mars could weigh up to 24,000 pounds.

Meals that are not prepackaged require more time to prepare, and it could take one person eight hours a day to feed a crew of six, according to a study Perchonok did at NASA.

“I don’t know about you, but if I were to go to Mars, I’m not sure how much (time) I would want to spend in the galley or the kitchen,” Perchonok said.

Carlos Salgado, a panelist and chef at Taco María, a Mexican restaurant with American influence, said the food that people decide to bring to space could ultimately influence the lifestyles and culture that people create in space.

“If we aspire to get ourselves off this rock and go to Mars and sustain human life on a second planet, then there’s the question of who’s going, what do they take with them, because wherever you put two or more people together, a culture will naturally emerge,” Salgado said.

State bill targets vaccine exemptions to limit potentiality for outbreak

A California bill would increase monitoring of doctors who give out vaccine exemptions and eliminate the illegal sale of exemptions.

Senate Bill 276, which was proposed by Democrat California State Sen. Richard Pan, aims to restrict the sale of fraudulent medical exemptions that a handful of doctors have sold to parents who do not wish to vaccinate their children.

Pan hosted a press conference at UCLA on Friday to advocate for the passage of the bill. UCLA and state physicians in support of the bill also spoke about the benefits of SB 276.

People against the use of vaccinations protested the event, yelling, “You’re a liar” and “Vaccination has been proven to cause measles,” at Pan after his speech. They videotaped the event and confronted him, but were ignored by the senator and his staff.

The bill would require all medical exemptions to be reviewed jointly by the California Department of Public Health and physicians to meet standards set by the state, Pan said.

Pan said in the press release he also sponsored Senate Bill 277 in 2015, which helped limit the scope of measles in California by eliminating exemptions based on personal beliefs for vaccinations required by schools.

“Thankfully this year in California, we have not suffered any large outbreaks like New York or Washington state or Michigan, or even like the one we had back in 2015 that started in Disneyland,” Pan said. “That’s because, in 2015, we took action to pass SB 277 which actually increased the vaccination rate among children entering kindergarten to above 95%.”

He added he thinks SB 276 would patch up loopholes left out of SB 277.

Pan said a small handful of physicians are now undermining SB 277 by selling medical exemptions online to misinformed parents who refuse to vaccinate their children.

The medical exemption rate increased from 0.2% in 2015-2016 to 0.7% in 2017-2018, Pan said in a press release.

An investigative report by the Voice of San Diego, a nonprofit news organization covering local public policies, exposed a doctor who wrote a third of all medical exemptions in the San Diego Unified School District. Pan said officials lack effective means to police malpractices, as the state does not have a database tracking doctors who write these exemptions.

“There are schools with medical exemption rates of 20%, or even as high as 50%, meaning that students at these schools are at risks of major outbreaks,” Pan said.

Pan said low vaccination rates pose major threats to the health of California communities.

He said a recent report published by Johns Hopkins University identified Los Angeles as the second-highest county at risk of measles outbreak because of its high influx of international travelers.

UCLA recently dealt with a measles exposure case after a student infected with measles attended classes in Franz Hall and Boelter Hall in early April. The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health contacted more than 500 people who might have been exposed to the disease and quarantined 127 students and faculty members who could not verify their immunization history.

Jan King, the area health officer for West and South Los Angeles, said at the press conference that a single case of measles can have a wide impact.

“One infectious case can expose hundreds, if not thousands of individuals to measles,” King said. “On this campus, UCLA had one person who was diagnosed with measles and within a short period of time, that person exposed over 850 individuals to measles.”

This has triggered a costly and time-consuming process for the university, which has to identify, document and quarantine all exposed patients and regularly check up with them, King said. Investigating each exposure costs between $1,000 to $2,000, which easily amounts to millions of dollars, King said.

Such outbreaks are disruptive and costly to taxpayers because county officials have to take extensive measures to address them, Pan said.

Some measures include identifying and contacting potential patients at the scene of exposure, checking immunization records, performing medical tests, issuing quarantine orders and tracking patients’ health for the following 21-day observation period.

“The costs associated with containing just exposures from three measles cases at Los Angeles International Airport earlier this year have already cost county taxpayers more than $80,000,” Pan said in the press release.

Sion Roy, the incoming president of the LA County Medical Association, said at the press conference that SB 276 aims to place safeguards that hold physicians accountable. Roy pledged support for SB 276 on behalf of physicians of the LA County Medical Association and California Medical Association.

The bill has also garnered support from the American Academy of Pediatrics in California and Vaccinate California, Pan said in the press release.

University of California spokesperson Sarah McBride said the UC has not yet taken a position on SB 276. McBride said UCLA only allows medical exemptions based on medical conditions that increase the risk for a serious reaction to one or more of the required vaccines.

UCLA began requiring new students to submit immunization records in 2016. The university currently does not have immunization records for about 25% of its student population, since many fourth-year students were never required to submit immunization records.

As of 2018, any student without the required immunizations, regardless of personal or religious concerns, could have their registration placed on hold unless they receive a medical exemption, according to the University of California Immunization Plan Policy.

However, Pan said he thinks the bill does not limit California residents’ freedom.

“We need to be sure people here in Los Angeles have the freedom to go about their community and be able to go attend college and not worry about being exposed to a serious disease,” Pan said.

NWWNC wastes over a thousand dollars in attempted business event

A local neighborhood council approved $1,015 in expenses at a special meeting Wednesday for an event that never happened.

The North Westwood Neighborhood council first announced “Next Friday,” a monthly event intended to highlight businesses in Westwood, at its January meeting. The first event was initially set for March 8, but was later moved to April 12. On the day of the event, however, the city still had not approved permits required for the event to occur.

The event, planned to be hosted at Broxton Brewery, never happened, but the council still incurred expenses for several services, including the design and print of a banner to promote the event, permits for the event from the city and required insurance for the permits.

Members of the council said the wasted expenses were an embarrassment and failure of the council.

Amir Tarighat, treasurer of the council and owner of WV Investments, said the way the council planned the event was a mistake.

“This was an absolutely horrible, incorrect, inappropriate process and use of money,” Tarighat said.

Tarighat said council members committed to payments and hired people for services without board approval.

“All of this money was a waste. We just wasted a thousand dollars,” Tarighat added.

Melissa Tapia, standing chair of the Community Activities and Projects Committee and a third-year political science student, said the city could not approve the event because the neighborhood council did not complete requirements set by the city, including getting approval of the event from the NWWNC and submitting a budget by the required deadline.

Councilmember Kevin Crummy said the council’s blunder was a waste of tax dollars.

“This is super embarrassing,” Crummy said. “This is money that’s coming from all of our taxes, and we just wasted it.”

Michael Skiles, president of the council, said Christian Green, the former chair of the Community Activities and Projects Committee, resigned from the council recently due to a personal matter, which limited his ability to correspond with the council in a timely manner on this project.

Tapia said she was unable to reschedule the event to another date because she is not intending to run for the council election Thursday, and cannot make decisions for a council she will no longer be a part of.

Skiles added the council should learn from the mistakes made planning the event, and in the future approve all projects at least three months prior.

CARE director to potentially finish term after UCLA chooses to not renew contract

This post was updated on May 13 at 7:05 p.m.

Administrators will not renew the contract of a sexual assault resource program director for the 2019-2020 academic year.

Alicia Oeser served as the sole director of the Campus Assault Resources and Education program since June. Administrators informed Oeser they would not be renewing her contract May 3, students involved with CARE said. CARE provides resources to sexual assault survivors and advocates against sexual violence.

UCLA declined to comment on why it chose not to renew Oeser’s contract.

It is unclear whether Oeser will remain director until the end of the school year. UCLA spokesperson Katherine Alvarado said in an email statement the university did not terminate Oeser’s contract for the current school year. CARE program services will remain available to students, she said.

However, Atreyi Mitra, a second-year human biology and society student and an advocate for sexual assault prevention who works with Oeser, said Tuesday will be Oeser’s last day as director.

Arden Levy, an advocate for sexual assault prevention and a second-year international development studies student, said she is frustrated by administrators’ choice not to renew Oeser’s contract.

“As a student who has been involved in this space, that feels like another symptom of the UCLA administration’s lack of care for survivors, for sexual violence prevention, their lack of real investment,” Levy said.

Levy said she has worked with Oeser on multiple consent training programs and projects related to sexual violence.

“Everyone I’ve spoken with about (Oeser) speaks incredibly highly of her,” Levy added. “I have friends that say they’re only still at UCLA because of (Oeser).”

Mitra said she thinks it is unfair Oeser’s contract was not renewed because Oeser is a hardworking and compassionate director.

“There is no CARE without (Oeser),” Mitra said.

Robert Watson, president of the Undergraduate Students Association Council, said USAC is committed to looking into the decision and holding the university accountable for supporting survivors on campus.

Watson said he thinks there is lack of transparency and communication regarding Oeser’s termination and said he is worried how CARE will function without a director.

Mitra said the choice to not renew Oeser’s contract shows administrators’ lack of support for CARE.

“They aren’t supporting CARE because they are completely neglecting the work, passion and energy the director has put into building this office and supporting survivors,” Mitra said.

Levy said she thinks if administrators feel terminating Oeser’s contract was the right choice, they should appoint an interim director once Oeser leaves the position and hire more CARE advocates to increase the patient-counselor ratio.

“Administration should reaffirm their commitment to the CARE Center to prove that this isn’t about giving up on the center and the services that they provide,” Levy said.