An attempt to economize campus transportation services may result in new student fees or the elimination of the campus-loop shuttle next year.
The Transportation Policy Committee met last week to consider new ways of funding campus transit services ‘mdash; including the Arriba, Regents and campus-loop shuttle lines ‘mdash; while taking into account the results of a campuswide survey of students, staff and faculty conducted by Parking and Transportation Services which indicated that most people would like to see the services continued.
The committee will make a recommendation to the transportation department next month to either enact a $50 user fee, implement a campuswide $15 student transportation fee or to simply reduce campus transportation services.
The user fee would function as a monthly or quarterly pass, and would be paid for by those who chose to utilize transportation services. A campuswide student transportation fee, which would be decided by a student referendum, could be either a specific quarterly fee or added on to current registration fees.
All three options would help offset budget shortfalls, as well as a recent increase in ridership for the Metropolitan Transportation System, according to last year’s A.S. representative on the Transportation Policy Committee Peter Benesch. He added that public transportation is a self-sustaining system, and student fees have never been used to fund the department. Parking citations and permit revenues fund the majority of shuttle and transit services, which cost more than $7 million annually.
The university currently pays just over $1 per day for each student who utilizes MTS, which is also facing budget constraints from state funding reductions. Ridership costs are expected to increase by 25 percent next year.
Director of Parking and Transportation Services Brian d’Autremont said the burden of funding public transportation unfairly lies on those who pay for parking permits and citations, not on those who use shuttle services.
‘We have to try to figure out how to do some cost sharing,’ d’Autremont said. ‘My biggest concern at this point is that we are fair. My second biggest concern is that we are supporting public transportation because it is so important to pollution [control] and sustainability.’
Two studies currently under way’mdash; one conducted by Transportation Services and the other by management consulting firm Sundstrom and Associates ‘mdash; seek to identify the most efficient funding strategies for public transportation through focus groups and forums, in order to help reduce congestion around campus and lower greenhouse-gas emissions into the atmosphere.
Although d’Autremont said the department is ‘trying to make sure the decision is made by the people that are affected by it,’ Benesch countered that the focus group involved in one of the studies is comprised mostly of faculty, and favors student fees over the elimination of the campus-loop shuttle.
A.S. undergraduate representative for TPC and campuswide Senator Emily Chi said she thinks the all-student transportation fee is the most feasible option of the three. While the user fee would give students the option to decline public transportation, the student transportation fee would require all students to pay for the services.
‘Even if you don’t take the shuttle and you are charged an x-amount fee, it is for the greater good,’ she said.
Chi said another option would be to completely cut the campus-loop system, though she said there is ‘strong support against reduction in service’ among members of the committee.
D’Autremont said that Parking and Transportation Services is constantly evaluating and seeking to improve campus transportation services.
‘We are in a very solid financial situation, but we are trying to economize,’ he sa
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