Committee Looks to Petition College for Free Use of CDTA Buses

The Sustainability Committee is looking to petition HVCC to work with the CDTA to have the college participate in their universal bus access program, allowing students and faculty free access to CDTA buses via their college IDs.
A sub-committee was formed within the organization on Feb. 13 to organize the petition and work with the college in pushing forward this proposal.

Currently, Hudson Valley students have to pay normal fares or purchase subsidized monthly passes to ride the regional bus service. “Naturally, we would love to partner with HVCC to provide universal bus access to students and faculty,” said CDTA spokesperson Margo Janack. According to Janack, the colleges participating in the program have all benefited from it. “Bus ridership significantly increased where colleges use the program,” said Janack. “This helps reduce traffic congestion in these areas and serves as a good recruiting tool.”

The colleges include SUNY Albany, The College of St. Rose, and more recently, Schenectady County Community College. Janack did not have any estimates about the cost of this program to the college and said that CDTA would have to speak to HVCC in order to formulate that information. The Sustainability Committee currently had no other information. This isn’t the first time that there were talks of the college participating in this CDTA’s universal access program. According to a Jan. 2011 article in The Hudsonian, the CDTA proposed a three year contract in 2009, where Hudson Valley would be charged a fee per ride, up to a fixed amount of money. The first year the program would be implemented, Hudson Valley would be charged a maximum fee of $125,000. For each year the contract was in effect, the maximum fee would go up by $25,000.

Members of the committee met with CDTA representatives in 2009 to discuss a system where students and faculty could take advantage of the bus services. According to Patricia Watt, chair of the Sustainability Committee, there was a proposal put on the table by the Sustainability Committee for the college administration to this type of agreement. A survey administered in Spring 2009 by the Sustainability Committee asked students if they were “willing to pay a yearly $10 environmental sustainability fee to support sustainability effortsat HVCC if it included free use of all CDTA buses?” Out of the 699 respondents, 28 percent selected “Yes, I would be willing to pay the fee,” while another 28 percent selected “Yes, I would be willing to pay the fee only if it included free use of the buses.” Forty three percentof respondents selected “No, I would not be willing to pay the fee even if it included free use of the buses.” Students riding the #224 bus shared their thoughts on the proposal.

“It would definitely be easier than getting a bus pass,” saidDeanna Papas, senior Criminal Justice.
Becki Linzner, senior Liberal Arts said, “That would be pretty cool.” Mohammed Hossain, freshman Individual Studies said, “It’s really nice. I hope this proposal goes through.”