Despite its excellent academic reputation, UCLA is essentially a commuter campus covered in vine. Real estate around Westwood and Bel Air is so expensive that even to be near campus, in Palms, say, or the Sawtelle area of West L.A., often means a motorized commute.

And yet more people walk to school than drive. And a vast majority of students are “alternative commuters,” the school announced this week. And that doesn't mean they listen to KROQ while driving the Scion mommy and daddy bought them to school, either:

What can the rest of L.A. learn from UCLA about how to take cars out of the transportation equation?

This week the school was proud to report that more students (27.5 percent) walked than drove alone (25.4 percent) to campus.

Only about one in two employees (51 percent) drove alone to UCLA, too, the school reported.

A whopping three out of four students found some other way to get to campus besides driving alone, UCLA says.

Credit: UCLA

Credit: UCLA

What's the secret? Here it is, via a statement from the school:

Through its transportation department, UCLA offers subsidies on bus fares, maintains a fleet of vans for shared rides, grants parking discounts to carpoolers and motorcyclists, gives out perks through its Bruin Commuter Club, and provides discounted access to Zipcars for alternative commuters who need a car for a day.

Can you see your employer or even your local government doing these things? Some already do. And, heck, they'll have to if they expect traffic (and our environment) to get any better.

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