Unitrans At UC Davis: 40 Years of Successful Transit Service

Filed Under Feature Stories, Success Stories, University Transit

Student Run Service Handles 3 Million Passengers Yearly for Davis Community

What is Unitrans? A Brief History: Unitrans was founded in 1968 as the University Transport System, when the Associated Students of UC Davis purchased two vintage London doubledecker buses to operate on two routes.

In 1972, Unitrans was opened to the general public, with partial funding from the City of Davis. Since that time the ASUCD/City of Davis partnership has continued, and now Unitrans provides public transportation service to the entire city with 50 buses on 15 routes, carrying over 3 million passengers a year.

Unitrans is well-known for their fleet of historic London doubledecker buses. These doubledecker buses run on four lines (B, E, F, G) in regular service during the academic year, and their times are noted on the printed schedule and a special flyer. One of the doubledecks has been converted from a diesel engine to run on clean natural gas. Unitrans’ CNG doubledeck is unique in North America, and perhaps in the world. Although the doubledeck bus is the symbol of Unitrans, about 90% of our service is provided by modern buses fueled by CNG (with one even-cleaner prototype bus operating on a Hydrogen-Natural Gas blend).

Unitrans emphasizes the benefits of having a student run system by highlighting the fact that by charging the students specific fees for the shuttles as well as employing student drivers and managers, the students in turn have much more of a vested interest, both financially and personally.

Some Challenges Persist

Some of the obstacles that Unitrans faces include finding enough student drivers, which is a continual challenge, as well as funding the needs of a developed system that needs to support such a large passenger base. For example, the bus service is often confronted with the issue of finding technicians that are able to utilize buses and resolve problems effectively. The fact that students are inexperienced with requires ongoing training as new students are cycled through the system every four years. As of mid-2008, twenty buses in their fleet are currently due for replacement. Finding the means to replace these buses as well as support the growth and development of the transit service is resolved through federal and state funding. However, a lack capital funding has be a periodic obstacle to achieving certain annual goals for the Unitrans service, and continues to be a source of concern.

In spite of these challenges, the community-wide Unitrans services has survived in large part because of the active engagement of the student population. This active engagement motivates creative management and problem-solving. The bottom line is that student leadership has played a major role in providing better service in the face of a consistently growing university and community population.

Click here to learn more about the unique Unitrans system.

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