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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. 

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?