Time to move on from GoPass

To the Editor,

As Graduate Student Council (GSC) co-Chair in 2005-06, I supported the GoPass for off-campus grad students because I believe in public transportation and think that it offers many benefits, both to the individual and community. However, as the GoPass program has developed over the years, it has become clear to me that a subsidized GoPass is not the right solution for commuting graduate students. The University, the GSC and the Graduate Student Transportation Board (GSTB) should spend their energy looking into alternative solutions.

As an off-campus grad student and a 2007 GoPass holder, I understand how students like Timothy Bonebrake [author of yesterday’s op-ed, “The 2008 Caltrain No Pass”] feel. Having GoPass taken away now means adding a burden to an already strained student budget. However, the economics simply cannot justify the University or the student body paying approximately $400 per year for each GoPass user. (There are 3,500 off-campus grad students, and each GoPass costs $100 per year. In 2007, 700 students paid for their passes.) The $280,000 the University spent last year on unused GoPasses could have been put to much better use.

In addition to wasting large amounts of money, a subsidized GoPass is redundant as an incentive to use public transportation. Caltrain is already cheaper than driving alone. Consider the following analysis based on Mr. Bonebrake’s situation. According to Google Maps, a round trip from the Hayward Park Caltrain station to Stanford is 29 miles. According to the AAA’s 2006 estimates, it costs 41.4 cents per mile to operate a small sedan for 15,000 miles per year. Assuming 5 round trips per week and 4 weeks per month, it costs $240.12 to commute to Stanford each month. A monthly Caltrain pass from Hayward Park (Zone 2) to Palo Alto (Zone 3) costs $106 per month. Even without the GoPass, Mr. Bonebrake saves over $130 per month by buying his own Caltrain pass. Given that local fuel prices are much higher than the national averages used to calculate the AAA’s estimates, the actual savings are likely to be considerably more than what I have calculated here.

These numbers are incentive enough for off-campus students to ride Caltrain to campus. There is really no need for a further subsidy. I commend the members of the GSC, GSTB and the University administration for their efforts to help graduate student commuters. However, it is time to move beyond the GoPass and start working on other, more cost-effective solutions for helping off-campus grad students with commuting.

Thomas Lee

Doctoral candidate, electrical engineering

2005-06 GSC Co-Chair