Rideshare, what's a rideshare

With the hustle and bustle that goes on here at CSULB it's got to be hard to create alternate modes of transportation for the near 30,000 students.

One program that is quite useful is the Rideshare program. The rideshare program is a series of alternate modes of transportation systems students can use to get to school such as a student carpool match list. This matches students up with other students from their neighborhoods that would be compatible to carpool together. Students who carpool also get preferential parking in the parking lot located just in front of Brotman Hall. There is also the campus connection shuttle that offers students rides from various locations on campus. (See map for details)

The Long Beach Transit, Metropolitan Transit Authority and the Orange County Transit Authority also run in and out of Long Beach State.

Associate Director Ignacio Carrillo says that Director Thomas Kenna has been working to, "establish closer partnership with Long Beach Transit to benefit students and employees." In order to create a more comprehensive system for the campus at large.

For information and to purchase monthly bus passes contact the University Bookstore Customer Service at 562.985.7945

New man on campus... kinda

This year the parking and transportation servces has seen some big changes. One of the biggest was the hiring of the new parking and transportation director Thomas Kenna. Kenna hopes to bring a new solidarity to the group.



They have a lot of new projects underway from talks of a new parking structure to expanding the rideshare program. Kenna will have his hands full.



But Kenna is more than happy to take on the challenge, "Its a new challenge coming from a private university to a public. It is great to have a team with so many years of service and experience. Candid information sharing has been essential to working to continually improve our parking services for the CSULB community. Brainstorming and posing the question of service in three separate questions has been helpful as well: How would we do this if it were our own business?, how would we do this if we were an auditor/inspector? and how would we do this if we are the customer?" says Kenna. Kenna plans to take transportation to a whole new level.



It will be interesting to see the changes Thomas Kenna will bring to CSULB, maybe I can convince him to give me a special parking spot..... Just Kidding.

Light it up, Bellflower that is...

So there has been much discussion lately about CSULB's push to add more lights on Bellflower Blvd. and since this issue has a lot to do with a push to improve transportation issues on campus, I figured I would investigate it further.

For those of you who don't know much about this effort, President F. King Alexander and the university has been working with the local city council to push for the city to implement better lighting on Bellflower Blvd. Many students and local residents walk, run, and bike down this street each night, and there is major concern about the safety of the street. The measure has been met by opposition in the city council. Recently ASI even hosted a protest (which was a tad bit unsuccessful) to bring light to the issue. As a side note, the OPINIOPN piece in the 49er was not the best ever, but it's practically the only place to find news about CSULB transportation.

Don't fret though, in an article written by the LBReport President F. King Alexander said that if the city council was unable to help,CSULB will still find a way to light up Bellflower.

Until then, we shall remain.... in the dark

To Walk or not to Walk

With all the buzz (or lack there off) surrounding the effort to add more lights on Bellflower blvd. For a more detailed background read this article the LBreport issued on the forth. It got me thinking about the safety on this campus. How does that relate to our our parking situation?

Well imagine yourself as one of the many students who use CSULB for it's evening services. Many of these students arrive on campus in the afternoon when parking is still chaotic and are forced to park on Bellflower or worse, 2nd st and PCH and truck it to campus. At late nights, when their classes are done they have to make their way back to their cars. That can become very dangerous for anyone. The Daily 49er recently published an article in which one of those students addressed the ASI Senate on this very issue. The concerned student voiced his concerns to the senate and urged them to begin to take a stance on the topic. Read the article for more information.

Until there is more information about the tantalizing transportation system at CSULB..... GO BEACH

and have a great week!!!

Diary of a mad CSULB student

It occurred to me, when the average student complains about parking on the CSULB campus, they complain about not having the perfect parking spot. It seems to me that there are plenty of options for parking on this campus, just not where the average student wishes. Most students head straight to the structures or the ever-shrinking parking lots available on lower campus. As students we tend to ignore any other options that the university may offer. Remember your first week of classes and the chaos the ensued? Check out this article The daily 49er wrote. They talked about some of the options students had on the first week of school, and how most students choose not to use them.

As part of my investigation into the current transportation system CSULB has, I have hired a fellow student, who choose to break out of the norm, and use some of the transportation service currently offered, ie: the shuttle system, to keep a personal diary of her trials and tribulations with the shuttle system. Stay tuned throughout the semester to see what we find.