uc irvine

UC Irvine's weekly student newspaper, The New University, published an op-ed highlighting one UC Irvine's student viewpoint on OCTA's bus service cuts. Minhquan, a 5th-year journalism student, takes the 29 and 178 from Huntington Beach to UC Irvine each day. Republished here with Minhquan's kind permission.

OCTA Cuts Leave Riders Stranded

by Minhquan Nguyen - Volume 42, Issue 23 - Apr 06 2009

When the Orange County Transportation Authority (OCTA) posted its annual report for 2008, the figures seemed promising for the county’s central transportation agency. Despite sharp increases in the price of gasoline – or, perhaps, because of it – bus rider-ship reached an all-time high of nearly 69 million, a very decent figure for a county as car-obsessed as ours.

Yet despite the growth of riders, OCTA continues to face budgetary stresses, which are exacerbated by the Great Recession sweeping the country at the moment. It should be understood that in addition to the bus system, OCTA is responsible for the improvement of streets and highways as well as improving the service of Metrolink rails within the county. Although OCTA draws funds from fares, tolls, interest on investments and federal support, most of the money in its 2008-09 fiscal budget comes from its own reserves (28 percent), state sources (23 percent) and local sources (29 percent). The latter two sources are largely derived from a state quarter-percent sales tax and a county half-percent sales tax, which were, respectively, originally estimated to total almost $400 million out of a $1.06 billion budget. read more→