The School Bus Pass - Reasons Why There Are A Lot Of Arguments Because Of Them
A while back I wrote about how much money it was plausible to save if you take public transportation. Since then, I have realized that there are a a number of varying alternatives for student bus passes throughout the country. The example I used of the pass in Winnipeg ended up being roughly average, so that’s good as far as the comparison went; however, upon checking out the various options around Canada I thought it might be interesting to note the differences.
Possibly the most debatable issue of student bus passes in Canada is the capability of a majority of students on some campuses to make the passes mandatory. Universities which includes the University of Ottawa, the University of Victoria, Saint Mary’s University, and the University of Western Ontario have organized student referendums where students elected to include bus passes together with their overall tuition and student user fees. At Ottawa this contributed to a law suit by 9 students against the University given that they felt discriminated against.
Naturally this scenario has some advantages and drawbacks. The great low cost of public transportation for those that use it is an undeniable incentive. On those campuses the rate was decreased to approximately a 100 dollars flat for the year! This is in all likelihood because of the inflated volume of sales. The fact that students are pressured to get passes would also help out the overall usage rates. This has excellent spin-off environmental effects, along with the mentioned financial ones.
Myself personally, the negative aspects are far more prevalent to me. During my time at the University of Manitoba there was a referendum on whether to put together a required package for public transportation to be supported by all students. I simply just can’t get past the fact that it should not be considered realistic for a negligible majority of students to trample the rights of a large minority and take money out of their wallets to subsidize their preferred form of transportation. If I remember correctly, there was currently a percentage of the money used from parking service fees to help counteract student bus pass costs. This is still a tough sell for me regardless of the environmental benefits. Naturally as a vehicle owner I am definitely bias.
My personal distaste for particular aspects of public transportation is very likely a result of the Winnipeg pubic transit system. It doesn’t matter how much money I was saving I couldn’t rationalize the consistent waste of time. The schedules were hardly ever correct, the constant rudeness of passengers, and the terrible weather aspect of life in Winnipeg, was more than enough to encourage me to get my own vehicle.
In the instance that I had went to school in British Columbia I would possibly have a very different view of student bus passes. After a comment from a local regarding her public transportation experience, I looked into the Vancouver area possible choices. I was impressed by the wonderful deal they got and the fact it was not subsidized by other students (this means it doesn’t penalize the students that walk, bike, or drive to school). The U-Pass (universal pass) is readily availablefor sale to post-secondary students for the low price of $30 monthly. The really good part of the deal is that this doesn’t solely cover the bus, but the Seabus and SkyTrain services as well! With such a complete variety of options I would suppose there is a reasonable amount of success with the program there.
In comparison, Winnipeg charges over $70 monthly for its substandard patchwork of buses. Other monthly public transportation rates for students include $89 for a metro pass in Toronto, $41 in Montreal for a merged metro and bus pass, $71 for a student bus pass in Saskatoon, and Calgary didn’t even have a student rate from the information I have been able to see on their site. The basic adult rate there for a month-to-month bus pass is $90.
One other thing people (not just students) who use bus passes should be advised of is the non-refundable tax credit available. For some people you can find a pretty good idea of how much money you should get back on your taxes by multiplying the yearly cost of your bus passes by .15 (15%). This is a great little bonus incentive for those of you who are already financially and environmentally mindful enough to use public transportation.
Student Bus Passes are a superb method for saving money when attending school. Cheap student public transportation is important to any university interested in make a subsidised service to their students.