Art by Peau Porotesano
Pepperdine should provide shuttles to Calabasas. There’s no shortage of students who live off campus, particularly in Calabasas, especially with the more recent housing difficulties and Villa Malibu breaking up with Pepperdine by shutting its doors to students.
It’s nice to live in Calabasas. The rent is cheaper, the scenery is picturesque and my high school friends assume I barbecue with the Kardashians. I live in Avalon and it sometimes feels like I am back in E. Penguily because I am within walking distance of most of my friends’ apartments.
The problem with living in Calabasas is the commute. At it’s best, it’s a 15-minute drive, but realistically I have to leave by 7:15 to make my 8:00 am if I’m assuming there will be no problem parking (see that’s funny). The campus construction, though necessary, makes a once devastating parking experience utterly nonviable. Then I spend another 45 minutes driving home. I know it seems that I am complaining about traffic, but believe me, I’ve made my peace and I’m not.
My issue is that I’m not always commuting during normal hours. Once school picks up, I am often on campus until midnight or later because of Recruitment or procrastinated projects or going back and forth between my apartment and campus. With the nonexistence of the library, I find myself without a consistent study zone and sometimes go home to fill the gap or to expedite a book request from the Calabasas library hub. Then, when it comes time to leave, I must face the already challenging canyon with sleepy eyes, a weary heart and no light. Talk about expert level. It’s really not safe, for me or for my fellow drivers.
I know that this situation is not unique to me. This week, Alumni Sean Graves launched an app targeted toward people looking to carpool after seeing a growing problem of parking at Pepperdine. The app is called RidePul and can be found on the Mac App Store.
Although students, all things being equal, should be self-reliant and weaned from coddling, the university should still provide transportation to a neutral location in Calabasas to meet the needs of its students. It is logical to assume that a reasonably priced transportation system should be provided. So too it is reasonable for us as members of the university ‘town’ to request transportation from our governing body, if not for free then for a small fee.
Creating a university-led carpool system or shuttle service would not only reduce parking problems on campus but would also reduce individual environmental impacts as fewer cars would be on the road.
For many of the same reasons, Loyola University Chicago has created its transportation service. It not only shuttles students around their Lake Shore Campus but also to their Water Tower Campus. In addition, they have supplied an on-demand van service that will take students and faculty to their private residences, Walgreens and other campus stops. Think of it like a G-rated Uber, there to accommodate the changing transportation needs of its community while maintaining the professional boundaries that should exist between a student and its school i.g. it is not a designated driver.
Pepperdine, in order to ameliorate the transportation difficulties associated with living off-campus be they due to construction or the geographical dangers of California, should provide shuttle services to Calabasas. Not only would this improve the general nightmare of parking, increase environmental consciousness on campus, but would also improve the safety of students who are simply too tired to safely drive.
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