As many of us are aware, starting Fall 2011 the UTA Ed-Pass program will no longer be available.
After coming to the conclusion that a $100 annual Ed-Pass is not sustainable, BYU administration decided to terminate the entire program. More than 4,000 Ed-Pass holders now have to decide whether they’re going to buy an expensive UTA monthly pass, ride their bike or drive a car. Regardless of how the Ed-Pass holders are going to get to campus this fall, I think they’re all going to lose something.
I have no doubts the UTA Ed-Pass program termination will inevitably result in a significantly decreased number of bus pass holders and, consequently, a noticeably increased number of bike riders and car drivers.
Let us hope BYU campus will have enough bike racks to serve all the bikers.
However, as far as car drivers are concerned — they certainly are out of luck. The BYU parking situation, being far from perfect already, is going to be even worse starting Fall, when many of the current Ed-Pass holders decide to drive their cars to campus instead of purchasing a $56-75 monthly pass.
Given all of the above, I’m having a hard time seeing how the termination of the UTA Ed-Pass program will benefit anyone.
I can’t appreciate how this is going to contribute in making the BYU campus pedestrian friendly, nor can I comprehend how it will encourage people not to use their cars.
Instead of having an option of purchasing the Ed-Pass at a higher, but still reasonable price, many of us will face unreasonably high transportation expenses, combined with worse traffic and awful parking.
Well done, BYU. Well done, UTA.
Vitalijs Sadovskis
Daugavpils, Latvia
