Possible Bike Sharing Stations in UCLA. -Given the Arriving Purple Line Subway UP M206A. March Tsai-wei Wen. Department of Public Policy

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1 Possible Bike Sharing Stations in UCLA -Given the Arriving Purple Line Subway UP M206A March 2011 Tsai-wei Wen Department of Public Policy

2 Introduction As the Westside Subway Extension program of Los Angeles Metro, so call purple line extension ongoing, in the future, there would be a subway station in Westwood, the future UCLA station. However, the future UCLA station would be on the Wilshire Boulevard. Assume people willingness to walk to the station is 1/4 mile to half mile. Then there is a transit problem between Wilshire Boulevard and UCLA campus. The distance between Wilshire Boulevard and UCLA main campus is about one mile and this creates a so-call Last-mile problem. Typically, bicycle is one of the solutions to solve the last-mile problem. This paper examines if bicycle could be the solution in the Westwood area, and analysis where should the public bicycle sharing station could be build? The Future UCLA Subway Station Where is the Future UCLA subway station? By the Westside Subway Extension program environmental impact report, the most possible location is on the north side of Wilshire Boulevard between Gayley and Veteran, right under UCLA parking lot 36. Map1 indicates the location of future UCLA station and the 5 minutes walking distances. From Map1, we can see that the subway station is not in walking distances from the UCLA main campus. However, the station cannot MAP 1 1

3 be build at any place near the UCLA campus either because of the huge cost making the subway line turn and the nearby cemetery. If the station is built near the UCLA; for example, on Le Conte Street, the subway line cannot avoid to go under through the cemetery and continue heading west. The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) predicts the future UCLA station would be the busiest station in the whole Los Angeles Metro system. By the prediction, about 14,000 people per weekday would board at this station, and this number does not count the people who get off trains. The possible rider for the UCLA station includes people from the UCLA Medical Center, the high-rise business office building around, the nearby Federal Building and from the UCLA campus. Map 2 shows the maps of demography analysis for the possible riders near the UCLA station. The possible riders are people who live or work near UCLA. The map to the left shows the number of population who live around UCLA. And the map to the right shows the number of workers around UCLA. There are also two distance-buffers on the MAP 2 2

4 maps. The half mile buffer indicates the 10 minutes walking distances and the 1.5 mile buffer indicates the 8 to 10 minutes biking distances. population number of workers mile 1 mile 1.5 mile Figure 1 Figure 1 shows the chart of summary statistics about the population and number of workers around UCLA. We can find that the number of workers and population increase significantly from the half male buffer to the 1.5 miles buffer. That is, if a person who live or work 1.5 mile away from the station has easier access to the station, the usage of the public transit would increase. Transit Methods Analysis: Between UCLA Station and UCLA Campus From the future UCLA station; there is three quarter mile walk to Ackerman Plaza, 1 mile to Royce Hall and more than 1 mile to the UCLA Northern campus. Take the Public Affairs Building as the final destination for example. Table 1 shows the possible transit method to and from Wilshire Boulevard and The PA Building. From Table 1, we can find that using bicycle would cost 6-10 minutes to transit. Compared to other transit method, such as Public buses, school shuttle, bicycle could be one of the transit methods which save time. Also, the distance between UCLA station and the PA building is about 1.5 miles, if choose walk from the station, it would need 30 minutes to get to the final destination. Thus, the bike population should increase in the future when the UCLA subway arrive. To solve the last mile problem between UCLA subway station and UCLA campus, Public bike sharing system could a solution. 3

5 Table 1: The Alternative Transit Method Between UCLA Station and PA Building Transit Mode Distance (miles) Time for waiting (Bus Frequency) Transit Time Walking Time (from bus stop or parking) Total Time (Minutes) Bus (BBB1, 2, 8, 12, Metro 761) 1 to 5 minutes 5 minutes 5-8 minutes Bruin Bus 8 to 10 minutes 5 minutes 5 minutes Bicycle 1.5 None 6-10 minutes (15mph) 0-3 minutes 6-10 Walk 1.4 None 30 minutes(3mph) None 30 Drive None 5 minutes 5 minutes 10 The Public Bicycle Rental System The public rental bike system, also called smart bike program, is a system that people could rent a bike for short one-way trip. The public bike program uses an automatic management bike system; and provides a multiple locations bicycle rental service. People could unlock a bike from any bike station and put it back in any other stations in the system. Usually, users swipe their smart transit pass to unlock the bike in the stations, and after every trip, locked the bicycle back in the station near their destination. The smart bike program is now operating in big cities across world such as Paris, London, Barcelona, and Washington D.C. Walking and biking from the UCLA Station Map 3 and 4 shows map of service area analysis of the UCLA station. Map 3 shows the service area of UCLA station in 15 minutes walking distances. As we can see in the map, half of the main buildings in UCLA cannot be reached in 15 Minutes walking distances. This creates a serious last-mile problem. Half of the students and faculties can t reach the station in walking distances and will have less incentive to take the subway. Map 4 shows the service area of UCLA station in 10 minutes biking distance. From the map, we can see that the whole UCLA campus could be reached in 10 minutes biking distances, assume the biking speed is 15mph. 4

6 Map 3 5

7 Map 4 6

8 Location for the Potential Bike Stations on UCLA Campus We can predict that the bike population would increase if there is a UCLA subway station on Wilshire Boulevard. If the bike sharing system could solve the Last-mile problem, then where should we build the bike stations? Also, the bike accessibility in UCLA is also another issue. Map 5 shows the route analysis around UCLA main buildings. As we can see, bikers cannot bike through the campus directly because there are lots of stairs through south campus to north campus. Bikers only could ride around outside the UCLA campus. Map 5 7

9 Next, I do the hot spot analysis. The hot spot analysis index is generated depend on the area population, the number of workers in the area, the existing number of public transit users and distance from the UCLA station. For the population, number of workers and number of transit users, higher number of people is associated with higher index score. For the distance, the score is distributed as following table: Distance mile mile miles miles 2-3 miles 3 miles and up Scores The reason of this score is that we don t want the bike station too far or too near to the UCLA station. Map 6 shows the result of hot spot analysis. From the map, we can suggest that we could start to build the bike station on the east side of UCLA. Also, set a public bike station need space. The easiest place to set a bike station is in the existing parking structure. Assume the future bike stations are set in the parking lot, Map 7 and 8 show the net work analysis of the possible bike station service area. The Map 7 indicates that the bike stations are in walking distance to the main building in UCLA. Map 8 shows that the biking distances between stations is no more than 3 minutes and almost every main building could be reached in 3 minutes by bike. However, the white spot on both net work analysis maps show that there are some no service areas on the north campus. This is because there are no bike friendly roads and also because of the data constrain. 8

10 Map 6 9

11 Map 7 10

12 No Service Area Map 8 11

13 Conclusion First of all, the bicycle population should increase if there is a UCLA subway station on Wilshire. So the public bike sharing system could be support in the future. But the existing bike lanes in UCLA still not enough, especially in north campus. Also, space for bike parking and set the bike station is still an issue. Setting the bike stations inside the existing UCLA parking structure could be a plausible solution according to the network analysis of service area. Public bike sharing system is a possible policy to solve the last-mile problem around the future UCLA subway station in the future. Data Sources: The US Census: Demography Data ESRI The United States Local Employment Dynamic Database The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) 12