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Photo by Reed Hutchinson
UCLA Photographic Services
Dan Bethel has been a reliable UCLA vanpool driver since
the program began.
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A long, but never lonely, road
BY CYNTHIA LEE
UCLA Today Staff
In the 20 years that Dan Bethel has been behind the wheel of a
UCLA commuter van, he has spent countless hours with passengers
who have become like family.
“It’s been pretty good,” said Bethel, a UCLA
carpenter and one of only six original drivers who started with
the vanpool program two decades ago and are still driving. “You
really get to know each other. They talk about their families, kids,
jobs; you hear their stories. I spend three hours a day with these
people.”
The ride has been relatively smooth for Bethel during his 126-mile
round trip to and from campus from Palmdale, where he lives. But
occasionally, like quarreling siblings, passengers have asked him
to “do something” about a fellow commuter’s snoring
or bad breath. “I tell ’em it’s not bothering
me. Just take care of it,” said the unflappable vanpool driver.
“The vanpool office actually has rules on this. If they can’t
work it out among themselves, then I might have to step in. If that
doesn’t work, they can go to the vanpool office.”
Such is the life of a vanpool driver, who needs extreme patience,
dedication to duty, a near-perfect work attendance record and the
organizational skills of an offensive-line coach, who must keep
13 people aware of who needs a ride and who’s driving (there
are 360 primary drivers, co-drivers and backup drivers in the program).
Bethel and other drivers were honored Dec. 9 at a “VANniversary”
celebration, where the program’s achievements in reducing
vehicle trips and fuel consumption and contributing to clean air
and employees’ quality of life were hailed.
Neither disputes nor blowouts nor backseat drivers has forced Bethel
off course, although he confesses that his need for the occasional
break causes him to go in solo on his motorcycle.
Budget analyst Kim Luna, who shared driving duties with Bethel
for 10 years until she moved, said, “He has never, ever let
anyone down. When he says he’ll be there, he’ll be there.
He has a very tough job. But we had fun.”
When the Northridge earthquake made some freeways impassable, Bethel
took winding mountain roads for a month. “In the evening,
going home was murder,” he recalled. Another time, a snowstorm
forced him into detours, prolonging the trip home to more than eight
hours. It took so long that Bethel had to make pit stops along the
way for his passengers’ comfort, he said.
But Bethel has continued to drive — he’s on his fifth
UCLA van after clocking roughly 150,000 miles each on the previous
four.
“I didn’t do it for 20 years because I love it. It’s
because it’s the cheapest way I can get back and forth to
work. I can’t even ride my bike in for what I pay,”
said Bethel, who gets a deep discount off his fee for driving.
For more information on the benefits of driving or riding with
the UCLA vanpool, go to www.transportation.ucla.edu/CAR/vanpool.htm.
Pamela Corante contributed to this story.
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