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Former Student Driver Takes Unitrans Into the Next 50 Years

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Jeff Flynn
Jeff Flynn '05 is now general manager of Unitrans. (Gregory Urquiaga/嘿嘿视频)

Approaching its 50th anniversary, in some respects looks much like it did on the day it began, Feb. 28, 1968: vintage double-decker buses from London, and enthusiastic drivers and conductors, carrying their fellow students to and from campus.

LOOKING FORWARD, LOOKING BACK

This article appeared in the Fall/Winter 2017-187 edition of 嘿嘿视频 Magazine.

And that鈥檚 how we like to think of Unitrans and its iconic red buses old and new 鈥 as our homegrown, small-town transit system, only bigger! Founded by the as the University Transport System, Unitrans today has a fleet of 48 buses on 18 routes, carrying more than 4 million passengers a year, or about 22,000 a day.

Despite the growth, said Jeff Flynn 鈥05, who took over as the general manager last summer, 鈥淯nitrans doesn鈥檛 have the feeling of an urban service. It鈥檚 a fun ride.鈥 And he should know, after five years at San Francisco Muni, most recently as the chief transit officer.

Flynn worked as a student driver and manager at Unitrans, and pays due respect to its history and 鈥渁ll the people who have made Unitrans what it is today.鈥 Still, just like the managers before him, he鈥檚 got his eye on the future 鈥 in particular, the fuel source for Unitrans buses. Most of the fleet today runs on compressed natural gas, and Unitrans is now working with campus administrative and academic units 鈥 Design and Construction Management, and the Institute of Transportation Studies 鈥 on an electrification plan in support of the university鈥檚 and city鈥檚 carbon neutrality goals.

original double-decker bus
One of the original double-decker buses. (Special Collections/嘿嘿视频)

But don鈥檛 think for a minute we鈥檙e leaving the old double-deckers behind. Unitrans mechanics already

converted one of the vintage buses to compressed natural gas, and Flynn said, 鈥淚f we can do that, it鈥檚 not out of the realm to think about turning them electric.鈥

Then there鈥檚 the question of self-driving vehicles, and what they might do to Unitrans as a place where students dream of working 鈥 one of the best jobs on campus, they say. Unitrans has more than 200 student employees, mostly drivers, but others who work on the business side like Flynn did.

Flynn said he鈥檒l let the engineers figure out autonomous vehicles, while doing whatever he can to ensure a place for students in the running of the bus system they started. 鈥淲e wouldn鈥檛 be Unitrans if we didn鈥檛 have our student employees and customers. They make this such a great place to work, go to school and live.鈥

People wishing to reprint any portion of 嘿嘿视频 Magazine are required to write magazine@ucdavis.edu in advance for permission.

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