Why I don't support the U-Pass

As a student who pays $62.65 for his student bus pass, one would think that I would be totally gung-ho for the proposed U-Pass, but I am not. In fact, I am against it. I will end up saving a little bit more than 50% if the proposed $125/semester U-Pass is enacted, so I am not going to spill any tears over the plan. However, I do not feel that the plan is in the best interest of all students, all residents of the City of Ottawa, all bus-riders of the City of Ottawa, and the City of Ottawa leadership.

All Students
In order to get your money's worth out of the U-Pass, you would have to take 16 trips per month. Including December, when you might not be going anywhere but staying on campus to study then going home for the holidays. This also includes reading week, and April finals. Now you may be saying I can take 16 trips; I can make it worth my while. My response would be, would you have normally done those trips, so are you in fact saving anything at all? I mean, I guess now you can go out to the suburbs whenever you want. And remember, twice a week (for round trips) is what you need to break-even on this. If you and your friends want to go to a party in Barrhaven, you can buy tickets and it will cost your $4 for the round-trip. How often do you go out like that? Twice a week max? Look at what you are currently spending on the bus, and then look at what you will be spending. Now, for some people it will be a good thing, I am not saying that every student is going to lose money, but I am going to go out on a limb and say quite a few are.
And I do not think that taking the bus to/from Mackenzie King/Laurier/Campus and vice-versa count as a trip, since you would have easily walked without the pass.

Residents
While the SFUO acts like the City of Ottawa should be treating them different, what they forget to mention is that the City of Ottawa is the government of all 1 Million or so residents and taxpayers of the city, and the SFUO should be afforded NO special treatment. If I were in charge of the city, I would tell the SFUO that the U-Pass would have to wait until the next city council mandate in November 2010 where it will be on the ballot as a referendum to let the voters decide. If the U-Pass is going to be a strain on the already strained budget, should it not be up to the taxpayers if it is enacted?

Bus Riders
A tricky thing about OCTranspo is that pretty much every cross-town route travels through down-town. And as such, they all (mostly) go through UOttawa's two stops. Imagine the amount of students who would take the bus from Laurier to Campus (and vice versa) just because they could. In my mind I have an image of one of those trains in India. As a current and long-time bus rider, I would not be impressed with that. Plus, who do you think will have to pick up the budget slack if the U-Pass puts a strain on it?

City of Ottawa Leadership
The focus has this mandate has been on budget efficiency and tightening the belt. While many cuts have been long overdue, some are no doubt questionable. However, one number that is being batted around is $1.4 million. They say that is the shortfall of the U-Pass proposal. That's a hefty chunk of change.

Other questions
Logistically, how would this plan be implemented? Would it be a sticker on our Student card? So once a semester every student needs to come to the SFUO office and line up for it? I can imagine how much fun that will be.

I would also question the validity of the referendum that was passed on the subject. If we are able to enact the U-Pass for next school year, how can we consider the referendum still valid when potentially half of the eligible voters are no longer at uOttawa and potentially everyone in 1st or 2nd year would not have voted?

I welcome debate on this issue, but remember that I would be one of those who would benefit greatly from this program if it were enacted. In the spirit of shorter posts I did not include everything, and I am also working on a counter-type idea to the current proposal.