Transportation Team Skirts Along

By: Kyle Willenborg

Hello everyone! We are now entering the thick of the SAR program as we approach the end of week 8, and the winter quarter at UCLA. In our last post, we discussed our plans to study the effectiveness of current bird parking spots and to collect data on areas of high traffic, where potential future parking spots could be located. We have since expanded our efforts to include all four current parking bird spots, and the two high traffic locations. Our intent is to assess the success of these bird parking spots as best as we can, and by increasing the number of spots we survey, we believe can get a better idea for e-scooter usage.

Also moving along is our attitude survey, which we hope to make available to you before the end of next week. In the survey, we will be looking to assess usage of e-scooter parking spots, and in doing so, possibly raise awareness for the parking spots. This is not our only intention for the survey however, as we also plan to gauge potential reasoning behind e-scooter usage on and near campus. This could provide valuable data and insight for the next phase of our project.

Finally, we are now beginning to plan for a potential e-scooter campaign next quarter. You might be surprised to know that we are pro e-scooter, as they provide a cheaper and more sustainable alternative to the ride hailing services that plague the UCLA campus. With this campaign and the data we collect, we aim to shine a light on the cost effectiveness of using birds as opposed to ride hailing. Another comparative benefit of e-scooters is the positive environmental impact due to reduced carbon emissions. Although the exact plan for our campaign is not yet set, promoting the usage of alternative methods of transportation is a priority, and we are excited to run the majority of our campaign through social media. So make sure to look out for us and our progress on the SAR instagram page (@sarucla)!

That’s all for this week. Thanks for reading and hope you’ll tune in for our next blog update!

Here you can see the Transportation Team shaming the drivers of these poorly parked e-scooters, which block the pathway near Public Affairs Building. Public Affairs is one of the two high traffic locations we have chosen to collect data at.