“Should students who own cars really have to pay for the bus pass?” This was the question Abulrasaq Adigun asked while I was interviewing him. In my opinion the answer is no. As students, we should have the option of opting from paying for the bus pass and instead use that for the parking pass instead. According to Abdul, the school charges $300 for a parking pass per semester. This is really expensive considering the fact that students who own cars still have to pay for a bus pass they most likely won’t make use of. This is an unnecessary cost for students who own cars. Even if the fee for the parking pass per semester cannot be reduced, students who own cars should have the option of opting out of paying for bus pass per semester.

During the interview, Abdul stated that he has to pay $60, a monthly fee for a general parking pass. This amount is a little bit close to what students pay for a bus pass which is $66 per semester. Even with this, Abdul is limited to where he parks. Most times, the parking lot is already filled up by the time Abdul gets to school for his classes. He will then have to use the visitor’s parking lot which costs about $1.30 per hour. Abdul can only park there if he has a 50 minutes class or 1 hour and 15 minutes class. He can’t park there when he has a three hour class. If not, his car will get ticketed/towed and it will cost him some money to settle that. He will have to waste time trying to find a suitable parking space which would lead to him being late to class.

Abdul already has all these to worry about, why does he have to pay a mandatory bus pass fee which he would most likely not make use of throughout the semester? Abdul is one of the many students in TRU having this issue to deal with which is unfair in my opinion. Hopefully something can be done about this.