Cal State Long Beach will continue the U-PASS program indefinitely, allowing campus members to continue to ride Long Beach Transit for free, university officials announced Thursday.
U-PASS was introduced at the beginning of this semester for a one-month trial and, due to the popularity of the program, it will now be available seven days a week, 365 days a year.
“The experiment … was an amazing success,” said CSULB President F. King Alexander.
In the week before school started, there were about 5,500 boardings by campus members, according to LB Transit. In the second week of the semester, there were more than 20,000 boardings.
“The results have been phenomenal,” said Larry Jackson, president and CEO of LB Transit, in a prepared statement. “The U-PASS has more than doubled our boardings to and from the university compared to what we had projected.”
According to Alexander, the program has many advantages, including a positive impact on the environment.
“This fits very well in the environmental sustainability program that our university is putting forth,” Alexander said. “It takes more cars off the road.”
Alexander also discussed the increased demand for campus parking spaces if students did not take the bus.
One beneficiary is Patricia Alvarez, a freshman liberal studies major who was excited to hear about the U-PASS extension.
“I’m not going to have to drive here,” Alvarez said. “Starting next month … I was planning to start driving.”
According to Alexander, another benefit of the program is that it can save students, faculty and staff money.
“It allows students to have free transportation and to use the precious gas that they pay so much for to go to work and to do other things that perhaps they need,” he said.
The program is costing the university about $800 to $1,000 each day for five days a week, Alexander said, making the total cost of the year-long program about $200,000. LBTransit is providing the weekend days to the university for free.
Doug Robinson, vice president of student services, said student fees would not be increased whatsoever to fund the program.
Reallocated funds from other university transportation programs, such as a bus coupon program for university faculty, are used to fund the new program, Alexander said.
Some of the funding also comes from fines and forfeitures—money from parking tickets—said Mary Stephens, vice president of administration and finance.
Many students were happy to hear the program will be continuing.
Adrian Mazcote, a freshman film and electronic arts major, said he takes the bus pretty much every day.
“It’s good that they’re expanding [the U-PASS],” Mazcote said. “It really helps.”
A student who helped promote the program, Brian Troutner, the Associated Students, Inc. treasurer, has also benefited from U-PASS. He said he never rode the bus before, but now rides it every day.
“I only drive my car from one side of the street to the other to avoid street sweeping,” Troutner said. “I haven’t filled up my gas tank in over a month.”
While campus members take advantage of the program, Alexander pointed out that LBTransit also benefits from the partnership.
“[LB Transit] want our students,” he said. “They want our numbers.”
In order to use the program, current students, faculty and staff swipe their CSULB identification cards through bus fareboxes instead of paying a fare.
LB Transit has more than 30 stops on and around CSULB. But campus members are not limited to these stops.
“As long as there’s a city bus going by or a bus stop, they can get on it for free, and go anywhere they want to in Long Beach,” Alexander said.
He encouraged the campus to use the U-PASS even when not commuting to and from campus.
“Use it to go downtown,” Alexander said. “Use it anytime you want all over the Long Beach community.”
Alexander also said the transit authority has guaranteed that if certain routes become highly popular, more buses will be added to those routes.
Robinson said the university will be looking into initiating a similar program with Orange County buses, but “we have not taken that step at this point.”
Alexander said he hopes the program becomes a national model for the future.
“They say that there’s no free lunch in society,” Alexander said. “Well, we’re not offering free lunches, but we are offering free rides.”
