It Starts With Reynard The Fox ...
... who first appeared in the 12th century as an allegorical anthropomorphic creature famed for his cunning ways. One of the characters in the stories was Bruin, a brown bear.
Bruin, rather prosaically, is simply the Dutch word for brown. "The Bruins", as all our readers will know (?) is the "brand" used for all the sports teams at the University of California Los Angeles, universally (and thankfully!) abbreviated to UCLA.
Scary!
Knowledgeable readers will recognise these typical American sports. There is basketball ...
Perhaps, before proceeding on our bear hunt, we need to understand a bit about UCLA.
... baseball ...
... and the incongruously named football.
Apparently striking the ball with a foot is very much a minority activity in this sport of mutual annihilation. But then, what does fbb know about any sport!
Vaguely aware of all the above, fbb came across this picture as he researched public transport in LA.
Like most things across the pond, it is BIG! It enrolls about 46,000 students each year of which about one third are post grad. It has a huge campus ...
... not too far from Noho and the Universal site.
Within the campus, it has its very own bus company, the aforementioned Bruin Bus ..
... and very smart it all looks.
There is a very clear route map ...
... colour coded and explained.
Two daytime routes (BLUE and YELLOW) are operated; with a special evening "safety" route shown in GREEN. You don't get a full timetable (at least, fbb couldn't find one) but there is an App and departure lists are readily available on-line.
Unless USA students are radically different from those back in Blighty, one might expect early morning headways to be slack with more frequent trips when they all wake up!
Oh, yes - these bus services are FREE!
There are also minibuses operating a DRT service for those with mobility problems..jpg)
The operator also provides a "private hire" service to student societies and organisations.
"But what about the PUCE route," we hear you cry.
The implication is that you have to PAY for the PUCE.
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It is operated as service 17 by the Big Blue Bus company.
This is Santa Monica "city transport" ...
... and runs from UCLA to Culver City.
And, tada, you get a proper timetable.
Fares look cheap..jpg)
It is really good to see UCLA's commitment to free public transport for its students in campus (obviously not really free, a sub will be included in the Uni fees!).
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It is also good to see a quote from the Bible as part of the UCLA crest ...
... although fbb suspects that the "light" is less about the presence of God and more about the light of further education!
Tomorrow we go from the sublime ...
... to something else.
Next South Harrow blog : Fri 21st Feb
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