UC Santa Cruz is replacing buses that are more than 30 years old, but officials say the move is unrelated to a fatal accident involving one of them. Last week, the university said the cause of the crash that led to driver Dan Stevenson’s death was due to his failure to negotiate a left turn in the road and had nothing to do with mechanical failure or deficiencies with the vehicle.
UCSC Transportation and Parking Services
Posted inEducation
UCSC students raise campus transit concerns in three-hour town hall
In the wake of a fatal bus crash and a damaging California Highway Patrol report that called UC Santa Cruz transit operations “an imminent threat to public safety,” students shared their frustrations at a town hall meeting Friday.
Posted inEducation
Santa Cruz Metro floats plan to take over UCSC campus loop bus service
As UC Santa Cruz faces increasing pressure from students and union workers to improve its bus system, campus and Santa Cruz Metro officials say they’re in talks to do just that. Outgoing Metro CEO Michael Tree says the talks are very preliminary for Metro to take over the campus loop buses.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
Students deserve a better transportation system – regardless of what caused the fatal December bus crash
Lookout politics columnist Mike Rotkin, who sits on the Regional Transportation Commission and the Santa Cruz Metro board of directors, weighs in on the problems of buses at UC Santa Cruz and the sad death of UCSC bus driver Dan Stevenson. Rotkin, who teaches a course at UCSC through Merrill College, says students deserve better service for the $171 quarterly fees they pay. He thinks a merger with Metro is necessary, but wonders how the transit agency will manage such a complicated deal, given CEO Michael Tree’s imminent departure.
Posted inLatest News
‘He was always really giving’: Family, coworkers remember UCSC bus driver Dan Stevenson as smart and caring
More than a month after the Dec. 12 bus crash on the UC Santa Cruz campus, family members and coworkers of Dan Stevenson, who died Dec. 29 from injuries sustained in the crash, remembered him as a caring person who loved a good laugh and said they are still reeling from the accident.
Posted inEducation
Students, workers union say UCSC slow to address safety concerns ahead of bus crash
While the cause of Tuesday night’s UC Santa Cruz bus crash remains under investigation, some students and union reps say the university has not acted on their concerns surrounding bus conditions. Labor leader Rebecca Gilpas said that if a mechanical issue does end up being the cause of the accident, “somebody has to be held accountable.”
Posted inEducation
UC Santa Cruz bus crash injures six, damages historic lime kiln
A UC Santa Cruz bus drove off the road Tuesday night and struck a lime kiln near the Cowell Ranch Hay Barn. In a campuswide email Wednesday, administrators confirmed that six people were injured, two critically; five are students and one is a university employee.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
UCSC needs to improve its loop bus system for students — it’s too expensive and unreliable
Sebastián Valdez, a third-year psychology major, loves UC Santa Cruz, but is frustrated by the high student fees for transportation ($171 per quarter) and the poor bus service students receive. He describes long waits, regular breakdowns and dissatisfied drivers. The 16 campus buses, he learned, are more than 30 years old and are breaking down at a consistently alarming rate. He thinks they are unsafe for drivers, inconvenient and unreliable for students and need replacing. The university’s Transportation and Parking Services, he argues, knows about the issues, has money and is not doing enough to fix the problems.
Posted inPolitics & Policy
$40 million later, Metro CEO Michael Tree’s priorities remain doubling ridership, zero emissions and housing
Having managed four transit systems before making his way to Santa Cruz, Michael Tree lives and breathes public transportation. With a recently secured $40 million from the state, the head of the Santa Cruz Metropolitan Transit District sat down with Lookout to discuss what that money will help fund, how his past experience informs what to do in Santa Cruz, the difficulties in building passenger rail, and more.