Concern over Lane Transit District’s allocation by the Programs Finance Committee prompted some Student Senators and PFC members to question whether University students are getting their money’s worth when the University purchases bus passes for every University student.
Numbers provided by LTD show the program saves students money, and suggest the program is used by enough riders to justify the expense.
Andy Vobora, LTD’s director of marketing and communications, said the ASUO is better off purchasing the group passes than purchasing a limited number and making passes available for the students who want them.
The term rate of $12.48 per student that was allocated by the PFC is a special group rate available only if 100 percent of the group participates, Vobora said. A limited number of monthly passes would cost $38 each.
“It spreads the amount of revenue you would get from a smaller group of students among all the students to get a better rate,” Vobora said. “It’s kind of an all or nothing program.”
The $732,000 allocated to LTD would purchase only 2,140 monthly passes, a number student Sen. Jacob Daniels, who was one of the more outspoken Senators at a discussion of LTD’s budget, said would not fulfill the needs of the University.
“If those numbers are valid, I would rescind my want to just have bus passes based on ridership, if that is the most we could get for what we’re paying right now,” he said.
Sophomore Shelby Timms said she rode the bus before she had a car but doesn’t anymore. She said the bus was usually a “last resort” for her because it takes extra time.
Timms said knowing that the cheap rate is not available unless every student participates, she thinks it is better to take the group rate. She said almost everyone uses the bus eventually.
Vobora did provide the Emerald with some ridership data. In a five-day period in November 2005, bus drivers counted 6,600 student riders per day through an electronic system. Considering that many riders take the bus round-trip and others transfer buses, Vobora said the “conservative estimate” is that 2,300 students per day rode the bus in that period.
In addition, between Oct. 2, 2006 and Nov. 10, 2006, an automatic passenger system on the buses counted an average of 3,297 riders per day deboarding at the University stops along Franklin Boulevard and Kincaid Street.
Junior Dusty Becker said he owns a car but takes LTD to and from school every day.
“You can’t park on campus,” he said. “It just doesn’t work.”
He said he thinks the system of charging every student a small fee is good because of the convenience of being able to ride with just an ID.
Vobora said LTD is planning to do a ridership survey this spring, possibly as a class project conducted by University students. Vobora said that if the survey can’t be done through a University class, he will hire a firm and have the data collected by the end of spring term.
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