TAPS Response to SUGB Statement Regarding Campus Transit

The below statement is in response to a statement from the Student Union Governance Board (SUGB) dated 1/23/2024.

Thank you for your letter of January 23, 2024 and for inviting [Executive Director Dan Henderson] to join the town hall meeting earlier this month. The team at Transportation and Parking services strives to provide high quality services to students, faculty, and staff, be responsive to concerns, and work collaboratively to find solutions to difficult problems. 

We are happy to respond to your questions to the extent we can. We also provide clarifications to some misinformation and incorrect assumptions that might be out there pertaining to Campus Transit in general. We hope that the following information is helpful, and are available to discuss with you, if you would like.

First and foremost, TAPS is deeply saddened by the passing of shuttle driver Dan Stevenson due to injuries sustained in the bus crash on December 12, 2023. Dan joined the UCSC transit team in 2021, but he joined the UCSC family long before that as a student, graduating with a degree in psychology in 1987. When a student once asked him if regretted not working in the field of his degree, he laughed and responded that he was working in that field. He believed that bus drivers are ambassadors and counselors and often spoke deeply with students, even during his 25-year tenure as a driver for Santa Cruz METRO, and he is fondly remembered by many of them. Dan was an integral part of the team at TAPS and he will be greatly missed.

Student Transit Fee

In 2019, the UC Santa Cruz student body overwhelmingly approved Measure 73; it passed with 88% voting yes. A significant objective of Measure 73 was “to build a reserve capacity which may be used to support the replacement of the aging bus fleet, including transition to electric vehicles and development of infrastructure to support those vehicles.” This is precisely what TAPS has done. To date, there is a reserve of approximately $4M to put towards new EV buses (two of which we are already in the queue for). The current infrastructure and electrical service to campus also requires an upgrade to support these buses. Additionally, while the $513 dollar amount referenced in your letter is the total for three quarters at UCSC and is more than what other UC’s feature, the funding models at other locations vary greatly and transit fees are used for different purposes on different campuses. For example, some UC’s transit fees do not cover service on a regional carrier, some UC’s have higher fees for other services, and some UC’s transit fees do not support on-campus transit at all. At TAPS, we do our best to responsibly and prudently use this student-approved fee revenue for its intended purposes.   

Campus Transit safety and the mechanical standards for shuttle bus operation  

All university vehicle maintenance and repairs, including those performed on Campus Transit shuttles, are initiated and completed by UC Santa Cruz Fleet Services (of whom TAPS is a client department). UC Santa Cruz Fleet Services conducts inspections on Campus Transit shuttles that are in operation and before they are put into service. The California Highway Patrol also conducts annual inspections. That being said, TAPS has indeed taken additional measures towards safety, including the provision of new operator seats for all shuttles and upgraded air conditioning units on any shuttle that require it. TAPS will continue to consider safety as paramount, and is committed to promoting and prioritizing safety.

Timeliness of Campus Transit frequency

We understand that waiting for a shuttle that is running late is frustrating, as is being late while aboard a shuttle. In fall of 2023, our service levels were more robust than they have been in several years, including prior to the pandemic. Our shuttles are often delayed by other traffic on campus or by large numbers of pedestrians crossing the roads. TAPS is sponsoring a study to determine if some of our campus intersections should or should not have signals. We encourage all students to support infrastructure upgrades to improve campus thoroughfares.

Parking enforcement

We understand receiving a parking citation can be frustrating. However, there is a limited amount of parking inventory available on campus, and an extremely high demand for it. Additionally, there has been a recent increase in vehicles parking without required permits, which in turn displaces those who are in compliance with permit requirements. To that end, there has been a strong outcry for increased parking enforcement efforts on campus, which we have done our best to provide. Even with this, there are a number of campus affiliates who are still asking for even more enforcement efforts. 

Until recently, our fines had not changed for 13 years, and the lower fines has meant that the parking citations were no longer as effective in deterring people from parking without a valid permit. TAPS consulted with the Advisory Committee on Campus Transportation and Parking (ACCTP) on this topic on May 2, 2023;  it was unanimously supported and strongly recommended that the campus move forward with a parking fine rate increase.  While our citation fine amounts were recently raised, they are still mid-range among UC’s and in line with the City of Santa Cruz. 

If affiliates find themselves needing to park and do not have a valid parking permit, we encourage them to consider using ParkMobile. There are hourly and daily options available, and spaces are located throughout campus. Alternatively, there are occasions where daily R permits may be available to parking-eligible students if lots have capacity. A certain number of daily R permits are offered on a first come, first serve basis each day. These permits can be obtained at the TAPS Sales Office during business hours (7:00am–5:00pm Monday–Friday) when available. We encourage students who are dependent on a personal vehicle to get to and from campus to submit a parking appeal. Also, if they would like to review other sustainable commute options, we encourage them to reach out to our Sales Office for a consultation, or visit our website at taps.ucsc.edu for more information.

Bus crash investigation 

The UC Santa Cruz Police Department’s investigation of the cause of the tragic Dec. 12 bus crash is still underway. We appreciate the community’s understanding while the investigation takes its course. The campus will share more information when the investigation concludes.

Shuttle fire investigation 

A shuttle bus that was in operation caught fire before noon on Monday, 11/13/23. Students and the driver quickly evacuated the vehicle and the fire was quickly extinguished by responding units from the Santa Cruz Fire Department. An investigation pointed to a failed sensor in the diesel after-treatment (filtration) system, which was installed in the bus along with a new engine and transmission in 2006. These systems are maintained annually and inspected semi-annually, per industry standard, by UC Santa Cruz Fleet Services. The Fleet Services maintenance team concluded the sensor failure to be an isolated event, but out of an abundance of caution, campus bus technicians reinspected all similar diesel after-treatment systems in the fleet. No deficiencies were noted. 

The plan for bus upgrades

TAPS is currently in line at Gillig for two buses; these would be the first EV buses in what we envision to be a complete, phased transition to EV buses over the coming years. The current production timeline would see our first two 35’ Gillig Battery Electric Buses enter the production line on approximately September 15, 2025. Gillig builds the bus in 10-12 days and once it exits the factory Gillig puts the bus through extensive testing including a water intrusion test, a shakedown test and a 1,000 mile road test before being approved for delivery. A shakedown test involves loading and unloading a bus multiple times with excessive weight and measuring the amount of permanent flex the vehicle experiences.  Based on the approximate September 15th, 2025 line entry that would mean bus delivery could be expected in mid/late fall quarter in 2025. We are also exploring alternative options for accelerating the retirement of our current fleet; for example, we have recently received four newer 35’ buses that should be in operation very shortly.

Staffing levels

Last spring, because of retirements and employee leaves, TAPS experienced an unexpected attrition of seven Campus Transit drivers. This resulted in a number of impacts to service delivery during that quarter. However, over the course of last summer, TAPS hiring and training efforts not only bridged that gap but also netted an increase of three drivers. We acknowledge that hiring, training and retaining commercial drivers is an ongoing challenge; it is not unique to UC Santa Cruz - just about every firm, agency and municipality that employs commercial drivers faces the same recruiting challenges. We continuously work on our recruiting efforts. For example, we are recruiting a new Training and Safety Manager position to oversee recruitment efforts with the goal of expanding the  driver pipeline. Finally, while we do have some part-time drivers, often because working for UC Santa Cruz is a second career for them. It is important to note, however, that most of our drivers are career employees, working at 100% or 80% appointments, which they have themselves chosen. Our drivers do have a furlough built into their annual schedule, which takes place during the summer quarter because of the natural cycle of ridership demand on our campus.