Are We Getting Anywhere?

Transportation benefits are lacking at Santa Clara

The swipes and taps of a Clipper Card are standard for university students in the Bay Area. At a time in our lives when rides from parents are long gone, friends are busy and owning a car is difficult, college students need the ease of public transportation. This economically efficient way of getting around is crucial for many cash-strapped college students. 

Similar to our Access cards, Clipper Cards are Bay Area transit cards that allow the holder to easily hop onto buses, rails, ferries, and trains without having to worry about having exact change to pay fares. Bart (Bay Area Rapid Transit) is one such transit infrastructure that services 50 stations across the Bay Area. VTA (Valley Transportation Authority) services Santa Clara’s public buses with some stations at Santa Clara University. 

When meeting my friends in the Bay, getting to a central location tends to be a challenging task. I was shocked to find out that my friends can get on Bart and VTA for free or discounted rates through their university’s partnership with VTA. We can only look to others in envy as our fellow Bay Area peers make their way to other destinations – for free. 

Santa Clara is the only university in the area not part of VTA’s SmartPass, an annual transportation pass available to Santa Clara County institutions. San Jose University students receive SmartPass, San Francisco State students get transit benefits encompassing Muni, BART and SamTrans and De Anza College students get unlimited rides on the VTA bus. 

Santa Clara does have some perks of its own, offering a 50% discount on ACE, a commuter rail service, 20-Ride tickets and complimentary shuttles from Santa Clara’s Transit Center to San Jose Airport’s Station, but they pale in comparison to the surrounding universities.  

In fact, Zipcar also provides a discount for Santa Clara students with driving rates from $11 per hour and $80.50 per day, not including the membership fee. However, San Jose State and San Francisco State students receive a significantly greater discount through Zipcar at driving rates from $5.50 per hour and $55 per day. It’s almost double the price and a far less sustainable way of getting around. 

The environmental impact of taking public transportation is much less than taking a Zipcar, Uber, or Lyft, which aligns with the goal of Santa Clara’s Transportation Services to provide transportation services that exceed the needs and expectations of accessibility, mobility, and sustainability. So why don’t we have the same student discounts and services that other universities do? 

Although Santa Clara offers luxury resources like free Xfinity cable for on-campus students, they fail to help students with one of the most important financial burdens. If Santa Clara has the funds to provide free entertainment for students, then free public transportation shouldn’t be so far behind. 

Commuting from Fremont myself, I can end up sitting in traffic for upwards of an hour. Those who do not have access to their own car have to worry about the time schedules of public transportation and the cost of each ticket. While the price of one ticket seems like an affordable amount, those costs tend to rack up.

With a little over half of the undergraduate population living in Santa Clara housing, the other half rely on transportation to get to campus and back home. Those living on campus end up using public transportation to reach venues, events, beaches and other areas of California as well to get away from the everyday scenes on campus.

There’s not a lot to do in Santa Clara without the convenience of driving. However, just outside of a comfortable walking distance are Santana Row, Westfield Valley Fair, concert venues, and the whole Bay Area to explore. Unfortunately, such outings require a plan to get from Point A to Point B. In this case, public transportation is the best choice to get a few miles away from campus.

The Santa Clara University Parking and Transportation Services should acknowledge the positive impact of being part of VTA’s SmartPass organization. Public transportation is a widely-used commodity that is a necessary resource for students.

Getting to and from campus should not be an obstacle, especially when we have to worry about classes, midterms, clubs and jobs. Santa Clara is an outlier in terms of free access to transportation benefits and that needs to change.