Should the Clipper Card Come to Santa Clara?

Santa Clara’s Associated Student Government (ASG) is working on a project to expand cheap and accessible public transportation to all students. A weekly ASG Newsletter email sent to the student body included a survey to gauge interest in a public transportation pass.

This latest survey constitutes the earliest stages of a potential initiative to provide students with either a limited number of free rides or discounted rides on Caltrain, BART and VTA. Junior ASG Senate Chair Evan Fine said that ASG hopes to collect enough data regarding student interest by the end of the current Senate that the incoming Senate will be able to take over a project with a strong foundation.

If survey data demonstrates significant enough student interest, ASG would begin the policy formulation process.

The initiative is the latest in a series of ASG efforts to increase access to local transportation for Santa Clara students. Previously, ASG had worked towards partnering with rideshare service Lyft to provide a limited number of free rides per student, per quarter. That project is still ongoing.

“A lot of people, especially commuter and international students, don't have readily accessible cars to go places,” said Fine. “We really don't have a downtown nearby, so a lot of people who want to go different places will find themselves needing to turn to Lyft, Uber, Caltrain, BART or VTA.”

The Santa Clara Transit Center, located opposite the main entrance to campus, is a hub for both Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) buses and Caltrain–the latter of which connects to the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) network at Millbrae station.

ASG has been working to partner with VTA, which provides bus and light rail services in Santa Clara County, for the past 7 years. 

While some organizations, including Lyft, are very receptive to efforts by universities to form partnerships, others take longer to coordinate with. 

“The main difficulty isn't any one thing in particular,” said Fine. “It is just finding someplace where a lot of people from disparate interest groups can be happy.” 

Fine identified the lack of VTA ridership and budgeting concerns as some of the limiting factors to a potential partnership. Any proposed initiative for discounted transportation services likely raises questions about how to pay for the program. The current interest survey asks students whether they would still be interested in the transit pass if its implementation would require a tuition increase of less than $50. But ASG is reluctant to resort to this option, according to Fine.

"With our ongoing Lyft project, for instance, the school has been very adamant that if we want that to happen, they're going to have to increase tuition,” he said. “This has been proposed a couple of times, and our student senate has generally been very averse to adding on extra things to our tuition because, as you can imagine, it's already quite substantial for a lot of people.”

In addition to off-campus social hotspots such as Santana Row and Downtown San Jose, a student transportation pass would make it easier for students to get to Santa Clara-sanctioned events and activities off campus.

Sam Canales, a sophomore from New York City, does not have a driver's license. He said that a student transportation pass would be beneficial to his ability to get around off campus. 

“One thing I wish I had it for was my ELSJ placement, which was 3 miles away,” Canales said. “Had I not met another Santa Clara student at my placement who was willing to drive me, I would have had to walk for an hour each way to reach it.”

Students looking to participate can access the survey by scanning the QR code included in the ASG Newsletter.