To the editor,
On Wednesday, The Spectrum reported on a newly surfaced plan presented to the NFTA towards an increase in ridership.
As an informed off-campus student, well aware of the fact that we pay three times for transportation (once for a parking spot for the car that you may not have, another for the downtown orange line shuttle that is scarcely available and then again for the NFTA Metro that you actually take to class each day), I am prepared to call for the support of a UB student body proposal.
While I do understand that this transportation discussion is not new, now is the time to begin to seriously consider investments in the NFTA for maximal return for the student body, the university and the region.
Is it possible, and I do ask this question with caution, that we (the students) could inspire our institution to inspire change in the way that our region does transportation. As the premier research institution of Western New York, is it not our social responsibility to open our minds and hearts to the concerns of the greater community (as our engineers have committed to in Haiti).
In such it may be possible that our green initiatives, lead by all star student advocates in the likes of Emily Bauer, spill over into the NFTA board of commissioners office. Could we, as a student body, be the innovators of access to opportunity via transportation in a region that (in action) rejects the very development it preaches? While I have become disenchanted in the fight against nationwide student complacency, I do hope that our own money matters inspire us to call for change.
The opinion of Buffalo State College students on the matters of the NFTA is of no value as they receive service in a package deal with the NFTA.
One University at Buffalo student, in assessing the simplicity of this proposal, mentioned that the cost adjustments as well as increased frequency on popular routes should increase ridership. Another student admits that he is not a frequent rider but is rather a recreational one who would like to see the Metro run longer hours.
'One concern I have,' a female UB architecture student claims, 'is the NFTA Metro rail ticketing system. On nights that I am arriving to the lab on a day pass that I purchased at 6:00pm (and end up pulling an all nighter), I am approached and hit with a $55 fine during the morning ride home. Maybe a 24 hour ticket should replace the day pass.'
The aforementioned concerns provide but a small span of reason for which our voices need convene on matters of transportation and access. We all know the story of our existence out here at the Amherst campus; the best that we can do as students is inspire access to opportunity that flows both ways.
If anyone is serious about engaging the NFTA and the University in serious conversation please Facebook me, if not then we shall leave the issue of transportation to the next generation.
