JPL pilot program buses employees to Gold Line and back as LCF considers opening up a public route
Employees at La Cañada’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory recently saw their commuter options expand with the addition of a temporary free shuttle service between the 6,000-employee facility and Pasadena’s Del Mar station on the Metro Gold Line.
And if all goes well, that temporary job perk could become a more permanent boon to La Cañada Flintridge residents at large.
The “JPL Gold” service — intended to supplement a single-direction ride from the Gold Line to JPL on Metro’s 177 bus, arriving every 30 minutes only during peak morning hours — now means employees and visitors can catch one of several, more frequent buses running in both directions on weekdays between 5:18 and 11:54 a.m. and then from 1:40 to 7:36 p.m.
JPL rideshare administrator John Miranda said the program started in April and will run through Sept. 29 on a piloted basis at the cost of about $126,000. Already it’s grown in popularity as more and more employees trade in their commuter traffic and site parking woes for a free, no-hassle ride to the train station.
“The success of the program has been overwhelming,” Miranda said. “We now have the numbers to prove that if [Metro increases] their frequency and their inbound/outbound capacity, we’ll show them the ridership,” he said.
Between the free shuttle and increased ridership on the 177, an average of nearly 200 people are taking advantage of the new expanded bus each weekday, according to headcount data.
On Tuesday, one of those riders was Santa Monica College student Wally Lozano Diaz, who came to attend a workshop and had to pay for an Uber driver to bring him from the Gold Line in Pasadena to JPL. The 25-year-old Hawthorne resident was thrilled to learn he could get back to Del Mar Station free of charge, thanks to the shuttle.
“It made me really excited, because it makes things more accessible,” said Diaz, who was blowing his student stipend on Uber rides. “Those Ubers were going to start killing me.”
JPL’s temporary program could possibly become more permanent as La Cañada Flintridge city officials talk with Miranda and other JPL staff about a cost-sharing partnership that would open up the JPL-Gold Line bus route to residents and the wider public.
City Manager Mark Alexander and Director of Administration Carl Alameda are examining whether Proposition A transportation funds might be applied to a rideshare partnership with JPL. If so, the corner of Foothill Boulevard and Oak Grove Drive could potentially become a stop on a regular loop.
“We met with JPL about three weeks ago to discuss their program,” Alameda said in an email Monday. “The thought is if the city provides a supplemental service, which would reduce the [current 177] wait times, the service would be more widely used.”
Miranda said he’s hopeful the JPL pilot program has demonstrated a need for more parking solutions and single-rider vehicle alternatives at a facility that’s become more crowded in recent years.
“We have 6,500 employees and 4,000 parking spaces,” Miranda said. “In order to make that work, we have to have some mechanism to reduce the number of trips to the lab.”
Currently, about 500 carpools of two or more employees are part of that effort, in addition to another 200 people who commute by bicycle regularly and between 600 and 700 who participate in available van pools, the rideshare administrator said.
Caltech, which manages JPL, recently agreed to increase employee subsidies for ridesharing from $35 per month to $50. The combined effort also helps JPL meet mandates put forth by the South Coast Air Quality Management District, requiring companies who employ 250 or more to develop rideshare programs and incentives for employees, with the goal of averaging 1.5 riders per vehicle.
With all its ridesharing options in effect, Miranda says JPL is averaging 1.63 riders per vehicle. Getting Metro to provide more frequent bus service between the facility and the Gold Line would continue to increase that number.
“I hope it happens soon,” he said of the route’s continuation. “Employees (who share rides) are more productive. Not only are they more productive, they tend to have fewer absences. It’s a win-win.”
Twitter: @SaraCardine
