Public transportation may be the solution for Cal State Long Beach students facing high gasoline prices, rising parking and tuition costs and a growing green consciousness.
“Forty-six percent of students are within CSULB Transit routes,” said Brynn Kernaghan, executive director of communications and customer service for Long Beach Transit.
Approximately 250 to 350 students purchase public transportation passes each month, said John Huynh, a CSULB student and employee at the University Bookstore where monthly passes are sold.
With the increasing amount of gas burning vehicles on the road, 90 percent of Californians are breathing unhealthy levels of air pollutants during parts of the year, according to the California EPA Air Resources Board.
LBT was the first transit agency in the world to introduce hybrid gas-electric buses into the transit service and currently has 62 hybrid buses out of its fleet of 240, Kernaghan said.
As fossil fuels burn, air pollutants such as carbon monoxide and sulfur dioxide are released into the air when fossil fuels are burned, which can cause various health problems and contaminate our food, water and soil.
“[The] environment is one of the key reasons to use [public] transit,” Kernaghan said. “Every time we replace buses, we replace them with hybrid buses.”
According to the AAA’s Daily Fuel Gauge Report, the current average price for a gallon of regular in the Los Angeles-Long Beach area is $4.62. The 43 percent increase over the last year has both students and consumers changing their driving habits.
David Cole, a CSULB graduate student, rides LBT every day. Cole owns a Toyota Matrix but says he would prefer not to own a car at all.
“I just live a few miles away,” Cole said. “For my particular situation it’s perfect … they drop me off right in front of class.”
Cole has lived in Boston and San Francisco, where he says buses ran continuously and with several routes.
“Long Beach is lacking. [There’s] not enough buses in the system.”
But it may be awhile before LBT can add more buses and routes.
“The state is taking away a lot of our transit funding,” Kernaghan said, referring to statewide budget cuts. “This is not a good time to add new services.”
Campus parking meters will increase to $2 per hour on July 1, and parking permits are increasing 25 percent to $123 per semester, according to CSULB Parking and Access Services.
The CSULB bookstore sells passes for LBT, Metro and Orange County Transportation Authority (OCTA).
There has been an obvious increase in public transportation this year, with the rising cost of gas and the state of the economy. Just look at the stats for LA Metro and LBT. And with the U Pass program in effect, public transportation users at CSULB have reached record numbers.
This article seems to contradict my sources. It’s good to know that 250 passes are sold, but that fact alone is meaningless. The question is not how many. The question is how many MORE than in previous months? I have the date memorized: February 19, 2008. That’s when oil rose past $100. When I interviewed CSULB Parking, Event, and Services Director Thomas Kenna in May, he said this: “fac/staff bus passes has actually decreased from an avg of 141+ to 121+users.” More public transporation? Seems like less to me.