Universal pass unnecessary

Students were again saddled with a mandatory transportation fee to pay for the so-called universal bus pass.\nStudents taking six credits or more have $27.66 added to their bursar bills to pay for rides on the green Bloomington Transit buses and the red IU Stadium Express, while students with 3-6 credit hours pay $13.83 and those with fewer than three pay $6.92.\nBut no matter how much students pay, it's too much to spend on a service most neither want nor use.\nThe fee is tacked onto bursar bills at the beginning of each semester and allows IU students to board Bloomington Transit buses by showing their student IDs to the driver. Students do not have to buy a bus pass for the green buses or pay $.75 to ride. This year begins the second phase of a three-year plan, conceived by IUSA and approved by the IU Administration, which intends to ultimately allow universal pre-paid access on both Bloomington Transit and campus buses. \nThe reasoning behind the plan is the campus' consistent traffic problems and the lack of available parking spots close to campus. If more people are riding the bus, there will be fewer cars on the streets thus making more parking spots available with the added benefits of fewer accidents, less air pollution and less stress. \nSince the mandatory transportation fee was installed, more people are indeed riding the green buses, but the vast majority of students continue to walk or drive to class and most seem to resent being forced to pay for a service they do not wish to use. Students do not avoid riding buses because they have never before been forced to pay a fee; they avoid riding buses because the buses are slow, because they don't go where people want to get to and because they consistently fail to run on time.\nThe transportation fee may have encouraged a larger percentage of the student population to ride the bus, but most students would prefer to keep their thirty dollars and walk or spend the money on a parking pass for their car. \nThere are other ways to get students to ride the buses besides enforcing a mandatory fee. If the objectives of the bus plan really are to reduce traffic, air pollution and stress, it would be a good idea to use cleaner, more fuel-efficient vehicles, to map out routes with better destinations and to insist that the buses run on time and with regularity. Perhaps the Bloomington Transit should consider adding more Park and Ride locations in other parts of Bloomington in addition to the one location at Bryan Park, where parking is consistently well over capacity.\nStaff vote: 15 - 4 - 0