In recent years, more than 10 percent of the students, faculty, and staff who arrive at UCLA each day have traveled on the Santa Monica Blue Bus. Since last fall, chances are that number has gone up.

Thanks to research by urban planning student Daniel Baldwin Hess and his adviser, Professor Donald C. Shoup, passengers can board that bus free by simply swiping a UCLA ID card through the fare box. The bus company tallies the fares, and UCLA pays later. "We certainly didn't make the administrative decisions," Daniel says, "but we provided a lot of information on the cost and benefits of similar projects."

A survey of U.S. colleges and universities turned up 35 programs that allowed students to ride free on existing public transportation. As Daniel points out, "only 27 percent of bus seats are occupied on the average. University students are a group that's willing to ride."

In providing free transit for students, universities were motivated by overflowing parking lots, the need to turn parking lots into building sites for expanding campuses, and the lobbying of environmentally conscious students. Such programs are "usually wildly successful," says Daniel, with increases in student ridership ranging from 70-200 percent in the first year. There's no reason to expect that the same won't be true at UCLA.

Before Professor Shoup and Daniel presented their data to UCLA's Parking Services department, the research had passed muster as a conference paper for a national meeting of the prestigious Transportation Research Board. "I realized the importance of presenting papers there early on," Daniel says, "and I always submitted something and pushed to see that I could go."

One reason for Daniel's early recognition of the importance of publishing was Professor Brian Taylor, who took him aside "my first day here" and advised him to publish early and often during his PhD career. Everyone has a dissertation; having publications as well is "the way to make yourself different," Professor Taylor told Daniel. Some employers, he said, are "more interested in articles you've published than in your dissertation." This was advice Daniel "really took to heart."

Today, his CV lists about a dozen conference presentations and a few journal articles. Still more articles are in the pipeline, Daniel says. "It takes a little while to build up your research background so you have the right things to say for journal articles." As for the effort involved, "some things just write themselves," he says. "Sometimes, I spend a little longer staring at a blank screen trying to come up with the right thing to say."

Professor Shoup has been a big help, talking research over with Daniel and providing feedback on drafts. Sometimes, they reverse roles. Professor Shoup is writing a book titled The High Cost of Free Parking, and when Daniel travels, his mentor often provides "a couple of chapters to read on the plane." Professor Shoup "only wants to hear critical comments," says Daniel. "I've learned a lot about how people can look at your drafts and make your writing stronger."

All this practice should be helpful as Daniel launches into his dissertation writing. For that project, he's building on research he did during an Eisenhower Fellowship year in Washington, D.C. He's hoping to provide useful strategies for planners who use spatial data sets from more than one source, for example, U.S. Census data and local school district information.

Daniel's interest in transportation began during his undergraduate years as a civil engineering student at Clarkson University in Potsdam, N.Y. But when he graduated, "I got on the next bus to New York City to fulfill my dream of being a dancer." He was successful, performing in Broadway musicals and national touring shows for about 10 years.

As Daniel got older-in dancing, that happens early-he got a master's degree in urban design at the State University of New York at Buffalo. Since he "did pretty well there," he came to UCLA seeking his PhD. He still dances in occasional shows, and he stays fit with a daily 16-mile bicycle ride to and from UCLA to his West Hollywood home. "Most of my route is through Beverly Hills," he says. "I take a different street every day and drool over the houses."

Pursuing his interest in transportation as a field of study was made easier by Federal legislation in 1998 that created a large pool of funds. These reach Daniel through the University of California Transportation Center, which has given him fellowships for graduate study and travel grants. It also provides some funds for the research projects of his mentors. And Daniel won a research mentorship award from the Graduate Division for a summer of work with Professor Paul Ong, who found his protégé "smart and hard working, quick to master new skills." Their work resulted in two articles, including one on ways in which older neighborhoods, with their higher density, available transit, and corner stores, mean less need for polluting automobiles. "Unfortunately, we're not building those places any more," Professor Ong said.

Daniel has yet to decide whether his future will take him to other universities or perhaps to government planning agencies. But his history suggests success in any endeavor. "One of the great pleasures of teaching at UCLA is to work with graduate students like Daniel Hess," says Professor Shoup. "He is a fine scholar whose honesty, integrity and good humor make him the ideal partner in research."

Published in Winter 2001, Graduate Quarterly