Is a semester-long bus pass for Loyalist College students a good idea?

By Brittany Woodcock ^[1]

BELLEVILLE – Loyalist College students have voted no to bus passes in the past ^[2], but they could be a way to help fund a regional transit system.

Belleville’s city council’s transit advisory committee ^[3] has worked with Loyalist for years to try to get semester-long bus passes included in students’ tuition, former committee chair Jack Miller ^[4] told QNet News.

The pass would allow students to ride Belleville Transit buses for an unlimited number of times throughout the semester.

The most recent vote by Loyalist students on having bus passes included in tuition was in the fall of 2015. Only 33 per cent of the students who voted said yes. That was less than the percentage in favour when the same question was asked the previous year.

This week, QNet News asked current students what they think of the idea. Responses were mixed.

Some said it would be a great idea for students who don’t drive.

“If we had a universal bus pass, life would probably be a lot easier for me,” said Maxwell De Graaff, a media-experience ^[5] student who’s a non-driver. He wouldn’t have to worry about making sure he has a monthly bus pass, change or bus tickets to get where he needs to go, he said.

Scott Rook, the president of Loyalist’s student government, said he thinks a pass “would be a very great option for students.” Rook takes the bus a lot, and a semester-long pass would be very helpful to him, he said. But he added that he believes students should be able to opt in and out of it.

Students who drive, however, told QNet that they don’t want to pay for a bus pass they won’t use.

“I would be OK if the universal bus pass was included in tuition if it was something that could be opted out of and/or if it’s something that was either ‘A, you get a bus pass; B, you get a parking pass,’ ” said Emilie Leneveu, a cannabis applied science ^[6] student. “I feel like a large population of students drive to school, and it would kind of suck to have that extra amount of money added on” for a bus pass, she said.

The bus pass would be good for students in residence who don’t drive, but students who carpool or drive to school would probably be frustrated if they had to pay for it, Leneveu said.

But opposition to the idea from students who drive is only part of the reason it hasn’t gone further.

“One of the issues that we’ve heard (about) why it didn’t get the majority (vote) needed to incorporate it was that there were students who lived north of (Highway) 401, (or) who lived in Quinte West, or lived in the county, that couldn’t really utilize it,” Miller said.

Rook said that if there were a regional transit system serving the entire Quinte area, students would be more likely to want a bus pass.

“We need to have a regional transit system,” he said, “so we can have better transit options for students that live in Trenton, students that live in Quinte West, students that live in Brighton. So maybe students will drive less, or maybe carpool more, or maybe take the bus more.”

Miller said the student bus pass could help fund services needed for a regional transit system.

“It can’t all fall on property-tax payers,” he said. The full-semester pass “would be cheaper than monthly passes and would help fund an addition to the (transit) services.”

But Rook said that with the provincial government’s proposed changes to students’ tuition fees ^[7] allowing them to opt out of so-called ancillary fees – fees for college services beyond tuition, such as the athletic centre and health centre – getting students to vote for the bus pass would be an even greater challenge.