Last Updated on May 17, 2017 by CCAR Staff
High-school and college students make up one of the largest “drive alone” segments of California drivers, according to a UCLA transportation study.
In Los Angeles County alone, there are an estimated 1.4 million students, and most are on the roads and freeways every weekday in their cars, adding to traffic, air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions.
So, what are transit agencies doing to turn these solo drivers into transit riders?
Not enough, says Denny Zane, executive director of Move LA, a transit advocacy group that has worked on the passage of two transportation funding ballot measures in the county, Measure R in 2008 and Measure M in 2016.
Now, Move LA is working with Assemblyman Chris Holden, D-Pasadena, to pass Assembly Bill 17, legislation requiring the state to fund transit passes for low-income students attending junior high, high school, community college, four-year colleges, universities and vocational schools.
Zane says it is not enough to build sleek train lines or dedicated busways. Coercing a change from solo cars to mass transit is social, a paradigm shift that requires economic rewards.
UCLA researcher Donald Shoup studied 35 colleges and universities with transit pass programs and found ridership increased between 70 and 200 percent in the first year.
“If we get just 10 percent to change, that’s 140,000 additional transit riders in L.A. County. That equals the ridership on the Red Line,” he said.
Students are an easier mark than suburban commuters less willing to give up driving their luxury cars.
“Students typically have less money and often have a lot of demands for school tuition, jobs and housing. They are ready to learn about how this expanding transit system might serve them. There is a receptivity and a need there,” Zane said.
While he stopped short of criticizing the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro) for its laser focus on building and expanding rail lines costing billions of dollars each, he said an annual cost of $12 million to $25 million for Metro to expand its student transit pass program is a worthwhile financial risk.
“You are not having to make a big capital expense, and you will get comparable ridership,” he said.
For example, transit pass programs at Rio Hondo College in Whittier and Pasadena City College caused ridership to rise from 7 percent in 2009 to 46 percent in 2014 at Rio Hondo, and from 11 to 47 percent during the same time period at PCC.
Zane worked with Santa Monica College in developing its “Any Line, Any Time” bus pass program that’s good on weekdays and weekends. Today, about half the students arrive at college via the Big Blue Bus.
At Mount San Antonio College in Walnut, Citrus College in Glendora and University of La Verne, students pay a small fee upon registration and receive a sticker they attach to their student ID that allows them to ride Foothill Transit buses for free.
Smaller transit districts can contribute to low-cost or free bus passes because the cost is smaller. Metro would have to lower the cost for more than a million student riders, a much costlier and more complicated undertaking, Zane admits.
Presently, Metro offers K-12 students $24 monthly passes, and college and vocational students $43 passes, a reduction of 76 percent and 54 percent, respectively, from the $100 price for other adults. Metro has deals with UCLA and USC that provide free or reduced-cost passes to students.
It’s precisely the existence of these transit pass programs that is holding up Holden’s bill in the Assembly Appropriations Committee. The bill was recently placed in the suspense file, and it will take a vote of the Assembly to move it out for reconsideration. The deadline is May 26.
“There is a concern that the program created by this bill is duplicative of existing programs,” concluded the Assembly Transportation Committee in a report dated April 24.
The bill would have to be folded into the budget, always a tricky venture. Some estimate the cost to be $50 million to $100 million statewide, Zane said. A similar bill died last year in the Assembly due to budgetary concerns.
Zane says a state law would help Metro and other agencies provide low-cost or free passes to students, increasing ridership on its buses and trains. The Assembly committee said a statewide program would reduce pollution and lower greenhouse gases — statewide goals — but may be difficult to implement.
