Transportation Advisory Committee

This forum concerns the change in B-lot and NW, FH, SE or West Campus Residential lot permits to exclude Omniride privileges. Permit prices remain at $660 and an Omniride bus pass may be purchased for an additional $100and an Omniride bus pass may be obtained at no extra charge. The proposed $100 OmniRide fee for the PlusPass (B commuter permit), FH, MW, and SE and West Campus resident ND permit has been withdrawn as of Friday, 27 April 2007. See http://www.parking.cornell.edu for more details.

I find the current changes very unfair for students who commute. The increase in parking rates is meant to discourage students bringing their cars to campus since Cornell thinks it is a walkable/bike-able campus.

This year the price per permit has gone up $20 to $640 and they’ve taken off the included Omniride. It seems that they are just looking to capitalize on making money off the commuters.

What’s even more insulting is that NEW students from two years ago, last year and this year are getting FREE omniride passes if they dont buy a parking permit.

Bus pass throughout campus used to be Free, so said a friend. The basis for “free” is that tuition fees books dorms meal plan all tally up to over $50,000. This makes it easy to Not have cars parked and jamming up small town Ithaca traffic.. by encouraging Free bus commuting around

The current fees are already too high. The increase is very unfair. I live at Hasbrouck, and I see no justification for having to pay for parking when already paying house rent in a townhouse community. Owning a vehicle in my case is not a choice, it is a necessity because I have two little children. I still walk/bus to main campus.

I am a graduate student that lives a significant distance away from campus. I don’t even live in Ithaca. My spouse and I needed to live far away from campus to accomodate both of our jobs and it necessitates that I drive to campus. Since I started commuting (before this I took the bus into campus every day) I have been parking in B-lot even though I work on central campus. I park in B-lot for two reasons (despite the long distance from where I work): 1) the fee was cheaper 2) the Omni-Ride pass was included, which allows me to take the bus in with no problem. I feel that making all parking spaces on campus the same price is unfair because B and A-lot are not near many of the places that people work and therefore they need to take the bus into their workplace. Taking away the included bus pass means that even more expense is incurred because parking so far away makes taking the bus necessary (especially on days with bad weather). In addition, having all spaces the same price will increase traffic on central campus because there is no longer any incentive for grad/ professional students to choose to park in either A or B lots.

I also want to mention that putting grad/ professional students in the same category as undergraduates is unfair- I have felt this way for many years. Grads and professional students do not usually live close to campus, they often support themselves financially and many times they have families to support. While they are students on the campus, they are in a different place in life and this should be considered in pricing. It is usually necessary for them to drive to work. They should not be penalized because the University is trying to discourage undergraduates from having cars on campus.

Finally, it is also difficult for graduate and professional students to be charged the entire annual fee for transporation/ parking at the beginning of the Fall semester. The University has found a way to allow staff/ faculty to pay for transportation through an installment plan through their paychecks. Could the University break up the payments for grad/ professional students through the Bursar Bill? I believe that this would ease the financial burden a bit.

I am a grad student who has lived in Hasbrouck, and I find it ridiculous that Hasbrouck residents (whose rent is already very high given the amount paid them in stipends) must pay an additional $660/year for parking in front of their own residence. Since the majority of Hasbrouck residents have children and therefore need a car for practical reasons, it seems that a better way to control parking in the Hasbrouck lot (i.e. to discourage undergrads from parking there) would be to make it distinct from other lots by distributing a different permit (preferrably free of charge) to the residents. If the current charge remains, I think it highly unfair to take away the free bus pass. Again, such action is asking families (many with two children) to stretch already tight budgets. With stipends of $18,000/year, rent (at Hasbrouck) of almost $12000/year and healthcare costs for spouses and dependents also taking several thousand dollars/year, how can the university expect student families to survive financially while using these university-sponsored resources and STILL pay an additional $660/year for parking and/or $100/year to take a bus to school?

It is completely ridiculous to charge $660 to park at Hasbrouck, especially since I can’t even park that close to my apartment and it usually takes me 15 minutes to unload my children and groceries from my car because I have to park so far away.

When I first came here, the price was less then half of that and it was still outrageous. One year (i think ‘02–03) they doubled(!) the parking charge and what for? To pay for raises for transportation staff?

And please spare us the “we charge that much to discourage cars and make the campus more environmentally friendly and less congested” excuse. Hasbrouck residents need a car because of their kids. Ithaca’s bus system is mediocre at best and I’d like to see the transportation staff try to drop off kids to day care using the bus or take them to see the pediatrician in the snow via TCAT. But obviously Cornell as a whole doesn’t care about their graduate student/postdocs at Hasbrouck. If they did, they wouldn’t be pushing them out to house undergraduates (and they are only doing that because the undergraduates pay more to live at Hasbrouck than the grads do)!

By the way, Ithaca College only charges $200 for parking for first year students, $100 for upperclassmen and $0 for grad students!!!! Just goes to show that IC actually cares about their graduate student needs.

The perpetually-hiked B-Lot prices have already served their purpose in my case— I didn’t buy one this year, and won’t next, because my budget just can’t take it. Removing the omniride from the B-Lot pass price is equivalent to raising the price $100 for all but vet school students, who may not need to bus to main campus in order to work. The rest of us must take the bus, especially in the winter— it is the only thing that makes the lot’s location even vaguely reasonable.

The result isn’t that I reduce emissions by replacing my car with a bus. The bus doesn’t run to my rural home. Rather, my husband and I drive in to either the Pyramid Mall or downtown streets with free parking, and then take a bus to campus from there.

When we parked at B-Lot our commute was about 20 minutes: 10 minutes to drive in, and 10 or 15 more to take the #81 bus to campus. Now, the commute is at least 30 minutes, and usually nearer an hour— we drive farther, must find an appropriate spot, wait for more infrequent buses, and then take a longer bus trip as well.

In our case, at least, Cornell is not being environmentally friendly by preventing on-campus parking. It is doubling the amount of time we spend in vehicles to and from work each day, and shunting its parking problems onto the surrounding community.

Driving into campus is not a luxury for us— it is the only way to get from the housing we can afford to the places where we work. Raising the prices doesn’t deter our driving. It only makes our lives more difficult, wastes our time (which could be spent doing research), and consumes more fuel. It is a bad policy.

I agree as other on here have said that the current fees are already too high and increasing them is unfair and will only force people to drive more often. If Cornell’s purpose is to maintain a lower level of cars on campus, then this is the wrong way to to do it. My husband and I live at Hasbrouck because it’s cheaper than trying to live closer to campus with the stipends we receive. I am also handicapped and must be able to park on campus especially when the weather gets bad, but I don’t need to drive all the time and would like to take the bus as often as possible to reduce the amount of emissions and also to keep Cornell more pedestrian friendly, but I have not bought one this year because I have pay extra to get the bus pass because I have a handicap permit, even though having a Hasbrouck parking permist is supposed to allow you to have a free bus pass. This not only discourages people who can leave their cars parked in front of their homes, but it is also discriminatory against those of us with disabilities who can still get around without driving all the time. I still walk and bus (although I have to pay for each trip) to campus as much as I can but it’s starting to seem as though I should just drive all the time as it would be easier on my body and my budget. But if we are charged for parking in front of our homes, and our bus pass are taken away, and then on top of that we will be charged even more for living further away, then Cornell is doing a major disservice to its graduate students.

There should not be a charge for the bus to Cornell. Furthermore, Cornell does not offer any transportation around their enormous campus and the city bus is what we must rely on.

The charge for parking is already way too much for graduates, especially Hasbrouck residents. There is no reason to even request more money out of it by adding additional buspass fee.

Parking Permit with option of bus pass for 100 is essentially the same as an increase of 100 in parking fees since most people do still have to travel by bus to on campus location from either of the 2 bigger lots. Hasbrouck residents also already pay alot for just parking. Considering the already ongoing increase of on campus housing rent that has gone up almost 100US/month through the last 3 years, increasing fees in any other way is really a huge burden for any grad.

It is really unfair that grad students are treated the same as undergrads. While I can understand why Cornell would like to limit the number of undergrads driving on campus, the situation is different for graduate students. Most of us live too far away to walk, and we are expected to work long irregular hours that do not conform to the bus schedules. My experiments do not end in time for me to catch a 7:14 pm bus home. Vet students are routinely expected in the clinics before 6 am, and late into the night. Furthermore, many of us have children. I need to be available quickly if I get called during the day. And I need to spend the hours they are at daycare at work, not waiting around for buses. Why can’t we pay the same rates as staff. And why are staff allowed to carpool and get free parking, and grad students not? Taking away the bus pass that goes with the $660 parking permit is the last straw. I try to take the bus as much as I can, but since I absolutely have to pay for parking, I will just start driving all the time. So much for encouraging the use of public transportation!

The sheer size of the Cornell campus, coupled with the fact that many of the so-called “on-campus” graduate housing options (like Hasbrouck and Maplewood) are not truly walking distance during the winter (the majority of the time!), makes bus service a necessity for most graduate students. I have never heard of a university charging students for on-campus shuttles, and I think all of the buses that serve Cornell only should be free. I can understand having to pay to get off-campus, but I do not think graduate students should be penalized because of the university housing plans that have placed them far away from the main campus.