Pitt should cover cost of bus fare

The ability to hop on a Pittsburgh Port Authority bus with only the flash of a Pitt ID has… The ability to hop on a Pittsburgh Port Authority bus with only the flash of a Pitt ID has been an incredible perk for Pitt students.

While we hardly ride for free – each year, we pay a $180 safety, security and transportation fee that covers the cost of riding – we don’t pay the average $1.24 fare that other transit users offer up for each ride. Actually, we don’t even pay close to that amount.

The amount of money Pitt gives to the Port Authority averaged over the amount of rides given to Pitt students rounds out to approximately 58 cents a ride.

This is because in 1998, Pitt and the Port Authority reached an agreement that offered a discount to Pitt riders under the terms that every student paid the transportation fee.

And for the first time since they reached that agreement, the Port Authority has decided to nix the discount that they offer to both Pitt and Carnegie Mellon students after the current contract expires on July 31.

We can’t blame the Port Authority for asking Pitt and Carnegie Mellon for more money. They are facing mounting budget cuts, and while students offer them a tremendous amount of ridership, the meager amount we pay per ride makes the agreement seem far from profitable. Inflation alone would call for an increase in pay after 10 years.

Pitt has stood firm so far, offering a counterproposal to the Port Authority’s offer, and to an extent, we hope that they can bargain for the best price. But it is essential that they come to an agreement, no matter what the cost.

The question now is where the burden of the new contract negotiation will fall.

If Pitt ultimately agrees to pay what the Port Authority is asking for – nearly double what we pay now – the University will be paying millions of dollars more every year. And we fear that a large majority – if not all – of that pay increase will come from our transportation fee.

The public transportation perk is a huge benefit for students, but it is also a tremendous selling point for the University. Pitt is a city campus, and markets itself as one, encouraging students to explore living off campus in Oakland’s many neighboring communities and check out attractions in cultural hot spots Downtown, at the Waterfront and on the South Side.

Because it markets Oakland’s neighboring communities as part of the attraction of going to Pitt, the University needs to work to make sure that students aren’t paying nearly the same amount as regular bus-goers, particularly when only some students regularly take advantage of public transit.

As students, we have had to bear tuition increases nearly every year, watching the money funnel into classroom, athletic and technological expansion projects. For Pitt as a competitive, city-based university, public transportation is as essential as state-of-the-art labs and athletic facilities, and we believe it is Pitt’s responsibility to cover the burden of the cost increase in the Port Authority negotiation.