Most University students know that getting around Eugene without a car simply requires a Lane Transit District bus schedule and a flash of their student ID card. What they may not know is that this service isn’t free.
Of the $202-per-term incidental fee, a little more than $12 goes to LTD in exchange for the use of ID cards as bus passes. Some members of the ASUO say they’d like to consider renegotiating the terms of the contract and to see hard data on student bus usage before continuing to pay for every student to ride.
At LTD’s Programs Finance Committee budget hearing on Jan. 11, the PFC approved allocating a total of $732,000 in student fees to LTD for the 2007-08 school year.
At a meeting on Jan. 17, some members of the Student Senate questioned this amount, which is a 7.7 percent increase from this year’s allocation and is above the ASUO Executive’s recommendation. The LTD budget is more complicated than others because it is a contract negotiated by the executive and the PFC is not involved in the negotiation, PFC Sen. Chii-San SunOwen said.
ASUO President Jared Axelrod said the contract for next year will be negotiated in the spring, based on the allocation PFC approved.
Student Sen. Jacob Daniels said he estimates that between 5,000 and 7,000 students actually ride LTD on a regular basis. He would like to find a way to reduce the costs for students who do not use the bus.
Daniels was one of several senators who said they would like to offer a limited number of bus passes that could be distributed only to students who would really use them.
Freshman Hannah Garces lives in the residence halls and does not own a vehicle. She said she rides the bus about twice a week and uses it mostly to go to Fred Meyer or Valley River Center.
Garces said she will probably use the bus next year because she does not plan on owning a car.
Garces’ roommate, Danielle Streicher, said she also uses the bus around twice a week and finds it to be very convenient. She said she isn’t sure if she would bother to pick up a bus pass if they were only available to a limited number of students.
“It would just be one more thing to do,” she said.
ASUO finance coordinator Madeline Wigen said the issue is not as simple as how much each student pays or how many passes are available.
The bus routes that go to the apartment complexes near Autzen stadium run several times an hour. Other businesses are charged for special routes, but LTD provides the Autzen area bus routes at no extra charge to students, Wigen said.
“They’re providing much more than the average bus route,” she said. “Is there a way that we can negotiate a limited number of bus passes – obviously we want as many students as possible to have them – is there a way we can reduce the number without reducing that service?”
Part of the debate among members of the Senate and PFC is that LTD did not provide any hard data on student bus usage. The price requested is decided on by the LTD board and is based on current enrollment figures, Wigen said.
For the past six or seven years, student government has been paying less than the regular LTD group rate. LTD officials want to raise the rate the ASUO pays so that it is closer to the rate other groups pay. This was reflected in LTD’s budget request and in PFC’s final allocation, Wigen said. PFC member Bassel Menzalji said he doubts that more than half of University students ride the bus on a regular basis.
He said he would like to have a statistician look at student bus usage to find out if it is really fair to charge all students for a service they may not use.
Menzalji said that in order to make a more responsible decision, he wants to see exact numbers instead of rough figures.
“Personally, I think if students have ideas, they should submit them to PFC and Senate,” he said.
Axelrod said he would also be open to the idea of reducing the number of student bus passes, but did not want to risk having the services reduced or the price per pass increased.
“I don’t think it’s smart of Senate or considerate of Senate to try to cut down the contract so much that there is that chance of losing those passes or pulling bus routes,” he said.
PFC can recall the LTD budget, and Axelrod has veto power over all PFC allocations.
“I don’t plan on vetoing anything,” Axelrod said. “I like everything that I’ve seen so far. As of right now, there is no budget I would veto.”
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Are bus rides worth $732,000 to students?
Daily Emerald
January 21, 2007
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