BruinGo! penalizes drivers for services they don’t
use.
I’m waiting for a table at Tony Roma’s when a man,
who could stand to lose twice my body weight, waddles to the
door. He hands his check to the hostess, pops a courtesy mint
in his mouth, and mutters to his wife, “Only one
mint? That’s pretty chintzy.” And with a
disdainful snort, he stalks out.
As I watch him leave, I ponder the mind-set of a person who is
not only ungrateful for a voluntary courtesy, but scornful of the
effort. There is no such thing as a free lunch (or mints, as the
case may be). To put it simply: If Tony Roma’s gave
more mints, the price of baby back ribs would rise. And, since
I dislike mints but love ribs, I would be pretty annoyed.
Raising parking fees to give other people free bus rides
isn’t all that different.
This past quarter, I’ve been taking advantage of the pilot
BruinGo! program, which allows students to ride the Santa Monica
Big Blue Bus for free. Originally subsidized by a grant from the
Metropolitan Transportation Authority, this year BruinGo! is funded
entirely by UCLA Transportation Services. Unfortunately, the cost
is too much for transportation services to continue to bear
alone.
Next year’s projected cost of BruinGo! is $1.3 million.
Transportation services now proposes to subsidize $826,000 of that
cost and has presented a 25 cent, co-pay plan to the Undergraduate
Students Association Council to cover the additional cost. Each
rider would swipe his or her BruinCard and drop a quarter in the
machine. USAC, however, was not enthusiastic. It wants to
avoid passing the cost to the students and forcing them to carry
exact change.
USAC’s argument is two-fold, so I will address each
part. First, I agree that asking students to both swipe their
cards and provide exact change is ludicrous. It would waste
time on an already tightly scheduled service because each rider
would take longer to board. And frankly, it’s just a
hassle. The Big Blue Bus already offers a discounted,
“Little Blue Pass” that amounts to 70 cents per
ride. The new co-pay model should include the option of
purchasing a “Little Blue and Gold Pass” that will
identify a student rider as a UCLA personage and charge him or her
a quarter. This option alone would go a long way to soothing
disgruntled riders.
However, the second part of USAC’s argument is
specious. In order to avoid charging bus riders anything, USAC
is considering a $1-per-month increase in parking fees and a $2
increase in parking citations. This move would pass the cost
of the program onto students who aren’t using it. The
idea is that the increased fees will be an incentive for people to
take the bus and that a buck isn’t a hardship for anyone who
needs to park.
Perhaps.Â
But, a few dollars just isn’t enough to motivate
anyone to ride the bus. Also, whether $1 is a hardship or not
is immaterial.
Because I live close to a bus stop, I take advantage of the
program. But, if I didn’t live in Westwood, didn’t have
a flexible work schedule, and needed access to a car for any other
reason, I wouldn’t be so lucky. So, while a dollar may not be
a hardship, it is unfair to penalize people for their inability to
participate in an optional program. Why should people who have
to drive pay for my free ride?
Furthermore, this kind of budget juggling only highlights the
fact that a free ride simply doesn’t exist. Eventually,
the costs will be passed on to students ““ whether they ride
the bus or not. If students don’t pay through increased
parking fees, they will through increased tuition or decreased
services. The only just and appropriate compromise is to
charge the people who are actually using the service.
On the other hand, I do support a $2 increase in parking
citations, but those funds would be better spent elsewhere ““
to offset parking fees, to ensure continued free rides for staff
and faculty, or to act as financial aid for those unable to foot
the 25 cents. Students attend UCLA as a privilege. UCLA
employees commute to campus as a necessity.
After all, I, too, take the bus to school. And I would
gladly pay a quarter a ride. In the big picture, if I took the
bus round-trip (five days a week, all year long), it would only
cost about $130. That’s a far cry from the yearly $624
for a commuter parking pass, not to mention the gas.
BruinGo! is supposed to address the parking problem at
UCLA. And, even with the co-pay, it still does. A 25-cent
co-pay is not a deterrent to taking the bus. If anything, it will
make us all realize that the program is a courtesy. I
don’t want to pay for someone else’s mints. Why
should others pay for my ride?