Archive for category: BEWell

Pay It Forward: Advocating for a Subway Station at UCLA

As students and members of the UCLA community, we must powerfully advocate for a new subway stop on campus.  While a station on the LA Metro Sepulveda Transit Corridor would bring quicker, easier, and less costly commutes, failing to be properly included in Metro’s expansion plan would lead to arduous commutes, higher housing and vehicle costs, and worsening air quality. Demanding the accessibility and opportunity that the UCLA station would provide is our duty to future members of our campus community.

The Sepulveda Transit Corridor (STC) Project aims to connect the San Fernando Valley to the Westside, overcoming the geographic barrier of the Santa Monica mountains via a rail system that could efficiently transport people between the two regions and relieve traffic congestion on the 405. Currently, Metro is evaluating six possible options for how the rail line will function and where its stops will be located. Out of the six, four propose a direct stop at UCLA’s Gateway Plaza. Whether or not Metro proceeds with plans to provide an on-campus station could have a   transformative impact on everyone learning, working, and seeking medical care at UCLA.

Because improving our built environment, promoting equity, creating interconnectivity, and reducing environmental harm could be advanced with the STC project, students and faculty must voice their own, and their community’s needs about Metro’s decision.

Improving Accessibility & Promoting Equity

One of Metro’s goals with the STC is to “Improve Accessibility and Promote Equity”. UCLA has a daytime population of over 84,000 including students, faculty, staff, patients, service personnel and visitors. Considering how hard it is to find affordable housing in the neighborhoods surrounding UCLA, a large portion of people live in more distant parts of LA County and must commute on a daily basis. This travel can be long and costly, taking away time from studying and socializing thus creating a lower quality of life for students, simply because they cannot afford the high cost of living near UCLA. These same challenges create a barrier to employment for staff members and make faculty recruitment expensive and difficult. A direct line from the valley to UCLA could allow people greater flexibility to live elsewhere and commute efficiently to campus for their educational and employment needs.

Kerry Sempelsz a second-year UCLA student remarks, “Commuters miss out on a lot of connections and club activities that probably don’t run every single day. I think if transportation was more convenient and accessible for everyone here, it would further expand the student environment that UCLA is famous for.”   

Not only would accessibility and equity be furthered in terms of housing, but also financially. By cutting costs of vehicle ownership and regaining the productive hours that are lost to commute times, the rail line would be economically empowering and alternatives that don’t include a station on campus would be unable to fulfill these goals.

Another important equity consideration is the means by which Metro wants to realize each option. The two project alternatives that don’t include a station on campus would be constructed along the 405 freeway and utilize a monorail system. Three of the monorail systems entail that train cars are built above-ground on an elevated platform, while the fourth includes an underground people-mover from the Getty Center to Gateway Plaza.

Enhancing Interconnectivity

Lack of interconnectivity is another issue facing Angelenos and UCLA. Connecting new rail lines to existing ones is a long-term mobility investment for the entire county, and a necessary step if you consider the long-term impacts of transportation infrastructure. Currently, the STC options that include a UCLA station also connect the STC to the Wilshire/Westwood/Purple/D Line station. Since the D Line connects Downtown LA to the west side, an intersection of the two lines would be a mobility hub. According to Abdallah Daboussi, Principal Transportation Planner at UCLA, this connection will incentivize more regional utilization of transit and when you monetize people’s time and convenience, it will eventually justify the cost of the project.

“The average person sees mobility as a means to an end. They just want to get to a place in the most convenient, cheapest way possible,” he said. “So if you build something that isn’t going to work for them when they want to get to Westwood or UCLA, they’re going to keep taking their cars despite the negative externalities of paying for gas and paying for parking.”

Although increasing ridership and convenience is an important consideration for Metro because they are seeking a return on their investment, it is also an important consideration for environmental reasons. Transportation is the leading source of greenhouse gas pollution in California and providing alternatives to personal vehicles would have a great impact in curtailing these emissions.

“A lot of the frustration around transportation is people feeling like they have to drive and that driving is their only option,” Emily Han, Active Transportation Planner at UCLA, said. “The key to really encouraging people to drive less is offering quality transportation options.”

Make Your Voice Heard

Although the reasons to advocate for a Metro station on campus are numerous, current UCLA students might feel detached from the outcomes, as the STC will not be realized until around 2033. Han responded to this by emphasizing the ways in which current students might benefit from the station later- from attending more school, to going to doctors’ appointments and just enjoying everything that Westwood and UCLA have to offer. Today’s UCLA community benefits from those who preceded us; we need to offer today’s contribution to the vitality of UCLA.

Daboussi added, “The students at UCLA are stakeholders and also the constituency so they could be effective in swaying the direction of this more than they realize. [This project] is giving them a chance to use their collective voice to call for more equitable, convenient, sustainable, and connected transportation.”

More and more utility boxes are being transformed into colorful displays of art on our streets.

Southern California has become a hotspot for utility box mural programs with districts like Pasadena, Burbank, Glendale, Long Beach, etc. all having initiated programs in their area. Here at UCLA, we are also starting our own project for “Our Environment, Our Health.”

There are 14 traffic signal cabinets all around campus that are currently a part of our built environment, but essentially invisible. It is important to acknowledge the products of our human impact, whether it is good or bad. This project takes initiative to bring attention to these mundane traffic signal cabinets to promote awareness of climate change, health, and well-being.

It is easy to take the space we occupy throughout our daily routine for granted. Sometimes we are too busy to pay attention to what surrounds us, and the more familiar we are with our environment, the less we notice it. Through introducing public art to our built environment, this project aims to activate both the space and our attention.

Many utility boxes are painted but for this project, the designs will be printed onto vinyl as it is more durable than paint. Vinyl is more resistant to UV rays and has lower risks of chipping or scratching than paint, providing a longer shelf life for the art it displays. Additionally, using vinyl gives more options for artists who use different mediums such as photography, graphic design, and new media.

Cities like Sacramento have chosen vinyl over paint, taking advantage of the lower cost to cover more utility boxes in the area. Their first box was completed in January 2014, marking the start to fulfilling their goal of beautifying the city and promoting local artists.

In recent years, other SoCal cities have initiated their own programs calling for artists to decorate the unnoticed utility boxes. Councilmember David Ryu developed the project for District 4 in November 2017 with the same objective as Sacramento.

These calls are attractive for local artists because these utility boxes provide accessibility and visibility to a large audience. The boxes are a canvas for whatever message they want to convey and it will reach the public. Some artists portray a personal motif relevant to the area of the box they decorate and others focus on the aesthetic of their design. This project provides artistic freedom for local artists as well as an attractive budget from $750 to $1000 per box depending on the program, covering supplies and a stipend for the artist.

All of these aspects make the utility box program highly attractive for artists and positive for the public who get to enjoy the refreshed environment. For our BEWell program, selected artists will receive a $75 gift card and the pride of seeing your work in the environment you occupy every day. Submissions are due March 26, 2020!

Lara Washington is a second-year Communications major at UCLA. In addition to blogging for the BEWell pod, Lara is a co-chair for E3’s Earth Month and a member of UCLA Radio’s marketing and digital press department.

If you’ve ever wanted a bike, here’s a chance you can get it for free! On October 27, 2019, UCLA Transportation hosted Bike Recycling Day where the UCLA community had the opportunity to receive a used bike or bike parts for free. If you’re upset that you missed it this year, don’t worry.

Since it first started in 2011, Bike Recycling Day occurs annually each fall quarter. UCLA students, staff, and faculty are eligible to participate and the event was inspired by other universities who hold bike auctions. Often, purchasing a brand new bike is not feasible with more basic-needs items taking priority in the budget. Having access to a second-hand bike, or bike parts can help kickstart your journey on the road. For UCLA, the goal is to take abandoned bikes from around campus and give them back to our community to start a new life. This year, over 100 people attended Bike Recycling Day and approximately 75 bikes found new homes.

Every year, the number of available bikes range from 100-150 as the supply fluctuates. A majority of the bikes are abandoned and impounded throughout campus by UCLA Transportation in the summer and winter quarters. They are held for 90 days to give the owner a chance to claim the bike and after that, they’re fair game for Bike Recycling Day.

This event is held in collaboration with the UCLA Bike Shop, where staff members are on-site throughout the day to help you with choosing a bike or bike parts. They can answer questions regarding bike sizing, repairs, and maintenance, all crucial aspects to make the most out of your new find. The Bike Shop is a great resource for all UCLA bike owners as they are a Do-It-Yourself-Workshop located right at the Wooden Center. They provide new parts for purchase as well as collected used parts for free.

If you’re interested in biking around campus, but are still unfamiliar with the bike routes, here are some guides that the Bike Shop has put together, as well as a UCLA bike map. Even if you don’t have a bike, you can get to know the UCLA Built Environment a little bit better and keep your eyes peeled for next year’s Bike Recycling Day.

Lara Washington is a second-year Communications major at UCLA. In addition to blogging for the BEWell pod, Lara is a co-chair for E3’s Earth Month and a member of UCLA Radio’s marketing and digital press department.

Between the honks, screeching brakes, and sea of headlights, anyone walking around Los Angeles can tell its streets are dominated by car travel. Some residents may not even realize there is an alternative. Ever since the automobile boom in the 1950’s, LA’s infrastructure has been increasingly designed for cars, limiting the ability of pedestrians to navigate their own city. To make matters worse, according to the City of Los Angeles complete Streets Design Guide, “[w]hen streets are continually widened to accommodate more vehicular volume, they create an induced demand for car travel that only encourages future traffic congestion.”

One way cities have responded to the saturation of cars is by temporarily closing their streets to vehicles while opening them to pedestrians. This is commonly known as an open street project, a term popularized by an organization of the same name. Aside from reducing traffic, open streets create many other benefits for city residents. First, public health improves because open street events allow residents to walk, bike, and participate in other physical activities where they otherwise couldn’t. Additionally, air quality can improve even from the temporary reduction in cars on the closed road. Cities like Paris and Beijing have seen an improvement in air quality after their “Odd-Even” car ban which only allows people with odd or even numbered license plates to drive on certain days. In these cities, public transit and bike ridership also increased as a result.

Street closures can also be a useful tool to highlight local amenities and businesses. The Open Streets Project suggests working with local businesses when planning and promoting an event because increased foot and bike traffic can enable them to reach more customers. In Los Angeles, businesses involved in an open street program saw a 57% increase in sales.

Lastly, open street events promote social wellbeing by utilizing public spaces for human connection rather than bumper to bumper traffic which keeps people in close proximity but without the ability to communicate.

Below are 3 examples of open street events in LA that support public health, local businesses, and social cohesion.

Photo by Steve Hymon and Metro-Los Angeles

CicLAvia

CicLAvia was inspired by a similar event that occurs in Bogota, Colombia called Ciclovia, which occurs every week. Over a million people have attended CicLAvia events over the years, making it the biggest open street festival in the country. As a result of its success, CicLAvia has helped reduce ultrafine particles concentration in the air by 20 percent along closed streets. CicLAvia also received increased funding from the city in order to promote the Eric Garcetti’s Vision Zero policy. The plan was adopted in 2015 as a response to LA having the highest rate of traffic pedestrian fatalities of any major U.S. city. However, traffic deaths still increased the following year so more must be done. CicLAvia has had 3 events thus far in 2018 with a final one coming up on December 2 from 9 AM to 3 PM in the Heart of LA.

Photo by William Short

COAST

COAST is Santa Monica’s annual open street event highlighting the city’s sustainability goals while providing a platform for art and community engagement. COAST is set up on a closed two mile stretch of Ocean Boulevard and Main Street. The Santa Monica Public Works division, including Resource Recovery & Recycling and Water Management, set up booths to educate residents walking or biking by about sustainable practices. COAST receives a lot of support from local businesses, as well, who hold promotions motivating people to buy locally.

Photo attributed to Westwood Village

Westwood Farmers Market

The Westwood Farmer’s Market occurs every Thursday on a closed portion of Broxton Avenue in between Weyburn and Kinross avenues. In 2017, Farmer Mark and his organization joined with the Westwood Village Improvement Association to expand vendor participation. Their main goal has been to make the event equally accommodating for customers and the famers who bring their food to sell. The Westwood Farmer’s market also provides an activity for families in the area, as well as an opportunity for UCLA students to connect with their community. Food on campus can be expensive, so a farmer’s market provides great incentive to save money while meeting new people and learning about other happenings in Westwood.

Teddy Tollin is a fourth year Geography major and Geographical Information Systems minor at UCLA. Besides working at his position as the BEWell blogger, Teddy is a member of the Transfer Student video team, Co-Chair of the Built Environment Public Health Coalition, and is passionate about Urban Planning.