With the fate of the BruinGO program to be decided this month, it's important to consider why this already successful program should be continued.

BruinGO is a public transportation program that reduces traffic congestion, saves energy, reduces air pollution and costs very little. Boarding Santa Monica's Big Blue Bus, students and staff simply show their UCLA ID cards, and UCLA pays Santa Monica 45 cents per ride taken. For every UCLA bus rider on any given day, a trip to campus (or anywhere else) is free.

BruinGO is not free transit, but is instead a new way to pay for transit. UCLA makes BruinGO available to 68,000 students and staff, and the program has caused a surge in transit ridership to campus. The program began in fall 2000; by spring 2001, student transit ridership to campus increased by 51%, while staff ridership increased by 73%.

Because UCLA pays for only those who ride the bus, UCLA's cost to offer BruinGO last year was only $1.50 per month per eligible person. Most of the $810,000 that UCLA paid to provide BruinGO became direct financial aid for students and staff who depend on the bus to get to campus.

Students not only ride free to campus, but to the Getty Center, their internships, volunteer work, the beach or anywhere else the Blue Bus goes. Whole classes take the bus to museums or public meetings. Faculty and staff ride the bus to Westwood Village and to off-campus work sites, saving both their own and the university's time.

UCLA's partnership with the Big Blue Bus is an excellent example of Chancellor Albert Carnesale's UCLA in LA initiative.

"UCLA takes enormous pride in being a civic partner with Los Angeles. ... The surrounding city enriches UCLA," the chancellor has said. "Los Angeles is a limitless source of opportunities and ideas. It is an extended classroom of unparalleled value."

BruinGO gives students valuable access to this extended classroom.

BruinGO helps not only UCLA, but all of Los Angeles. Students and staff who shifted from cars to buses made 615,000 fewer vehicle trips last year, which reduced traffic congestion and kept 27 tons of pollution emissions out of the city's air.

Five other UC campuses, including Berkeley, allow students to ride public transportation free, as do many other universities across the nation. But while Los Angeles has the worst traffic congestion and air pollution in the country, UCLA is the only university in Los Angeles that offers fare-free public transportation for its students.

The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority has already latched onto the concept of a "smartcard," which it is developing to enable riders to pay for travel on every bus and rail transit line in Los Angeles.

If UCLA's experiment with BruinGO is repeated at other colleges and universities in the region, thousands of students and staff will begin to leave their cars at home. BruinGO is a promising innovation with enormous potential, not only for UCLA, but for Southern California. It's simple: BruinGO should stay.

Dukakis, former governor of Massachusetts, is a visiting professor of policy studies. Shoup is chair of the Department of Urban Planning. Information about BruinGo is available at www.sppsr.ucla.edu/res_ctrs/its/UA/index.html