Bruins tapped into using public transportation in record numbers during 2025

Key takeaways

• Public transit has surpassed walking and driving for the first time as the most popular mode for commuting students, according to UCLA Transportation's State of the Commute 2025 report.
• UCLA staff and faculty are twice as likely (9%) to take transit to work than the average Los Angeles County worker (4.2).
• Close to 21,000 U-Passes were distributed to undergraduates, with 34% of off-campus students identifying public transit (including UCLA's BruinBus) as their primary way to commute.

Twenty-five years of sustainable transportation programs at UCLA have shown that the commuting revolution will take place on board public transportation, with declining daily vehicle trips turning into over 29,000 university-issued transit passes. UCLA Transportation's State of the Commute 2025 report highlights this increase in university transit program participation, with students, staff and faculty all hopping on.

For the first time, public transit is top among students, displacing walking and greatly outpacing driving alone. What started with one subsidized pass for Santa Monica Big Blue Bus and Culver CityBus a quarter century ago has evolved into a robust program with expanded transit pass offerings for local and commuter lines, bike programs, electric vehicle charging, carpool permits and several micromobility options.

State of the Commute, published annually by UCLA Transportation, covers these developments and more. The data is gathered from two annual surveys: a Student Transportation Survey issued to undergraduates and graduates and the South Coast Air Quality Management District Survey issued to faculty and staff.

The report focuses on the travel patterns of the university community each academic year, examining commuter characteristics and habits, vehicle trips and traffic, parking utilization and programs supporting multiple transportation choices - documenting how the population of 90,318 Bruins get to, from and around UCLA.

For the third year in a row, the report showed a rise in public transit usage, with almost 34% of off-campus students identifying public transit (including UCLA's BruinBus) as their primary way to commute.

Bruin U-Pass for undergraduate students reached its highest distribution level on record, with 20,449 passes ordered in fall quarter 2025, surpassing the 18,432 passes distributed in fall 2024.

Faculty and staff transit usage grew through the Commuter All-Access Pass and related employee transit benefit programs, with almost 2,500 passes distributed in fall 2025. Creating a single, more affordable offering streamlined the program, providing unlimited rides on 13 transit agencies throughout greater Los Angeles, improving equitable access to public transportation.

UCLA staff and faculty are greener commuters than their Los Angeles County counterparts, too. They are twice as likely to take transit to work, with almost 9% of employees responding that they commute via public transit compared with 4.2% of Los Angeles County workers overall.

Driving alone to campus has a sizable carbon footprint, making public transportation the more environmentally optimal choice. As an example, a gasoline-powered car ride 30 miles to and from UCLA twice a week of climate-damaging carbon dioxide equivalent emissions over the course of an academic year.

Will Bruins go the distance sustainably over the next 25 years? With LA Metro's D Line Extension into Westwood expected in fall 2027 - ahead of the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games in Los Angeles - as well as the agency's Sepulveda Transit Corridor high-capacity rail line set to bring a station directly to campus in the next decade, the future of going green looks good for the blue and gold.

For an in-depth read of the interactive report, visit the UCLA State of the Commute 2025 website.