KEITH ENRIQUEZ/Daily Bruin Senior Staff This campus van, driven by Kathy Harrington, has been more crowded than usual since the MTA strike began.
By Michael Falcone
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
The official start of fall quarter may prove to be a commuting nightmare for UCLA faculty, staff and students who ride Metropolitan Transportation Authority buses.
The disruption in service caused by the ongoing strike has already taken a toll on thousands who have been stranded since Sept. 16.
In response, UCLA Transportation Services and other agencies have taken steps to provide alternatives to MTA service through its emergency ride matching program.
“We’ve put out word to the campus community that if you need help, give us a call and we’ll try to match you with a carpool, vanpool or other bus service,” said Mark Stocki, director of Transportation Services.
Stocki said in the two weeks since Transportation Services started the emergency program, several hundred ride-sharing inquiries have been processed.
Stocki said Transportation Services currently has no plans to increase or reroute UCLA bus service in response to the strike – as they did in the aftermath of the 1994 Northridge earthquake when UCLA buses were routed to various locations in downtown L.A.
“Looking at the resources that are available to us, the best and smartest thing to do is what we’re doing now,” Stocki said.
But Stocki said he would like to see more alliances between UCLA and other public transportation services, such as the recently implemented program allowing riders to swipe their Bruin Card on the Santa Monica Big Blue Bus lines for free rides.
While the strike has taken a toll on the economic well-being of both businesses and individuals, it has meant a significant increase in ridership among other bus lines that serve the L.A. community.
Ridership on the Big Blue Bus line 10, which runs west from downtown L.A. to Santa Monica, has nearly doubled, according to Big Blue Bus General Operations Manager Stephanie Negriff.
Negriff said since the MTA has decided not to sell monthly bus passes for October if the strike continues past this week, the Big Blue Bus will accept MTA riders’ expired September passes for the duration of the strike.
With the strike threatening to enter its third week, MTA and union negotiators have been unable to reach an agreement.
In a statement released Wednesday, Yvonne Brathwaite Burke, L.A. County Supervisor and chairwoman of the MTA board of directors, expressed her disappointment with the union’s refusal to settle.
“(Union leadership) walked away from a package worth $43 million more in wages and benefits than the MTA is currently paying,” Burke said in the statement.
But union leaders say offers for a settlement on the part of the MTA are inadequate and they will stay off the buses until a more acceptable agreement can be reached.
“I thought we had some basis and a criteria set to start negotiations toward settlement,but that didn’t happen,” said James Williams, a spokesman for the United Transportation Union, in a statement released Wednesday on the UTU Web site.
Until a firm agreement is reached, MTA riders will have to continue finding alternative transportation.
But at a time when no one knows when MTA services will be revived, Stocki was optimistic about an end to the inconvenience the strike has caused.
“I just don’t see the MTA strike as lasting for months and months,” he said.