UCLA's Sustainable Transportation Efforts

Sustainable transportation efforts at UCLA began before the term was coined. UCLA's been greening its transportation since 1984.

Due to its location within the Los Angeles Basin and the South Coast Air Quality Management District, the campus has long endured traffic congestion and been subject to emissions reduction requirements. The first Transportation Demand Management (TDM) programs on campus began in 1984, in preparation for anticipated traffic related to the Olympic Games being hosted in Los Angeles, with the Olympic Village on campus. In 1987, a TDM Plan outlined the need for campus investment in alternative transportation to help relieve congestion and enable campus growth by managing and reducing vehicular traffic demand.  The recommended strategies within the Plan concentrated on ridesharing but included other actions such as additional on-campus housing.  Plan goals included reducing peak hour and daily vehicle trips, and strategic actions included increasing the number and quality of options to driving alone.

Subsequently, a well-developed alternative transportation program emerged in the 1990s which included vanpools, carpools, and a campus shuttle.  These programs served as the basis for traffic growth limitation commitments in the 1990 campus’ Long Range Development Plan (LRDP).  A vehicle trip cap was voluntarily agreed to with the City of Los Angeles to limit the number of trips to and from campus, with both daily and AM and PM peak period caps.  The campus also voluntarily capped the number of parking spaces to be constructed over the LRDP planning horizon.

Between 1990 and 2002, over the life of the 1990 LRDP, parking demand declined by 21% and peak hour vehicle trips by 27% below levels which would have occurred without TDM.  Parking inventory remained relatively stable despite considerable campus growth.  The trip cap and parking space caps were both so effective that in 2002, UCLA re-committed to both caps for another ten years and committed to maintain or improve its extensive TDM programs.

Since 2000, on-campus student housing has been considerably expanded, with several thousand new dorm beds coming online and, concurrently, a policy change was made to require resident students to demonstrate off-campus employment in order to be parked. This significantly reduced the need for student parking and reduced campus traffic.  Also since 2000, new TDM programs have been generated for public transit including subsidized bus passes for staff, faculty and students. Current campus expenditures for the suite of TDM programs are approximately six million dollars per year.  Part of these costs are covered by parking citation net revenues, per California statute.  The remainder of campus TDM program subsidies come from parking revenues.

The current construct of TDM programs at UCLA includes a full-gamut of alternative mode programs.  These include: transit pass subsidy agreements (at least 50% subsidy for students and employees); commute support services such as an emergency ride home program, and discounted membership and hourly rentals for an on-campus car-sharing program; a growing bicycle program spurred on by a Bicycle Master Plan; as well as campus shuttles, vanpools, and carpools.  Of note is that the campus shuttles run on compressed natural gas, providing lower greenhouse gas emissions than traditional diesel buses.  New TDM programs include an iWalk campaign in partnership with the Cultural and Recreational Affairs Department that both encourages good health via walking and also reduces midday trips on campus; and a Bike Loaner program that will distribute bicycles on campus for student and employee use, again promoting good health and a reduction in vehicle trips.

How well are the programs working?  By any measure, they are doing very well.  Having had a “head start” compared to many other universities’ relatively new focus on sustainable transportation, UCLA bucks the infamous car culture of Los Angeles, best evidenced by employee mode split.  Los Angeles County drive alone rates are approximately 75%, while UCLA employees come in a full 20% lower, at around 55%.  Students, of course, have even lower drive alone rates and heavily utilize the transit pass subsidies.  Traffic volumes into and out of campus have actually declined for the past five years, even as campus activity has grown.

Beyond TDM programs, the University is also greening its fleet.  There are two primary components to this effort: rightsizing the fleet, and the alternative fuel vehicle (AFV) program.  The rightsizing effort focuses on vehicle usage and sheds vehicles that are not fully utilized.  The AFV program focuses on new vehicle acquisitions: as vehicles are cycled out of the fleet, they are replaced, whenever possible, by an alternative fueled vehicle which produces less GHGs.  The current fleet is approximately one third AFVs and in the future will continue to increase.

The advent of the sustainability movement and growing awareness of the impact of greenhouse gas emissions dovetails well with the TDM programs and fleet greening that UCLA supports.  Greenhouse gas emissions inventories have been calculated for all surface transportation facets, including the university fleet and commuters of all mode choices. Given the improvement in drive alone rates since 1990, it is no surprise that commuter greenhouse gas emissions today are lower than they were in 1990 or 2000.  This is attributable, in part, to the increase in student housing on campus, but it is also largely due to the success of the University’s TDM programs that provide access and mobility to campus while reducing greenhouse gas emissions.  Although commuter GHG emissions are lower today than in past decades, there is still much work to be done as the University strives towards the ultimate goal of climate neutrality.  The campus is in the process of completing a Climate Action Plan, identifying additional measures to continue to promote alternative modes of transportation, reduce commuter miles traveled, and to continue to lower its transportation carbon footprint.