The Daily Pennsylvanian :: Rene Alvarez | UA shuttle wasteful, hurts the city

Thanksgiving. That distinctly American holiday set aside to express gratitude for gifts and blessings received during the year. But before we can enjoy being with family and friends for food and fun times, we first have to get where we are going.

Thanksgiving is traditionally the busiest traveling season in the United States. This week thousands of people will follow the example of that John Candy-Steve Martin movie and use planes, trains and automobiles to reach their final holiday destinations.

There is a reason holiday sojourns are ripe for comedy by the likes of Candy and Martin. Traveling can be a pain. Too much traffic, too many people and too little courtesy.

If you are fortunate enough to be a Penn undergraduate, however, at least some of your traveling difficulties can be lessened. Once again, students are entitled to receive all the benefits of Penn's private mass transit system - Penn Transit. The Undergraduate Assembly, in partnership with Penn Transit, will take students from the front of the Quadrangle directly to Philadelphia International airport tomorrow and Wednesday.

This year's program has expanded to the two days before Thanksgiving and guarantees seats to student who pre-register for a ride.

While the privilege of taking the UA shuttle enables Penn undergrads to avoid having to suffer the indignities of utilizing Philadelphia's public transit system, a program like this robs SEPTA of ridership.

And SEPTA needs us.

You can't walk within 20 feet of a SEPTA station without hearing complaints about reliability. But rejecting SEPTA all together - and starting our own mini transit system - does not solve the problem.

It makes it worse. Fewer riders provide less of an incentive for public transit to make any service improvements.

Some undergrads agree - to a point.

"I support public transportation. It's a great way to get around the city," College and Wharton sophomore Wilson Tong said.

Tong is also a UA member and chairman of the UA's Facilities and Campus Planning Committee. Tong and his committee are overseeing the implementation of this year's airport shuttle program.

"I grew up using public transportation. I took it every day this summer," Tong said. "I would hope that some students would take SEPTA if it's convenient."

And by inconvenient, he's referring to the lengthy walk between the Quad and the regional rail station next to Franklin Field. That's a long five blocks. Really.

"If students want to do that, we're not going to stop them. The biggest factor [for the UA shuttle] is cost and convenience."

But just because something is easier and cheaper does not inherently make it better, particularly for the long term.

SEPTA is heading straight into another (yes, another) fiscal crisis. In the second half of this year alone, the public transit organization is $37.5 million in the red. Siphoning off another $10,000 in potential revenue will only exacerbate the problem. And Penn students will pay the price when SEPTA raises fares to make up the difference.

Three dollars now doesn't sound like such a deal in the face of $3 SEPTA fares, does it?

(The current fare is $1.30 with a token, for those of you who take cabs everywhere.)

The shuttle also further harms the reputation of Penn students. The expansion of Penn's private transit system - which includes airport runs not only before Thanksgiving, but also prior to winter and spring breaks - perpetuates the stereotype of Penn students as privileged and entitled.

Tong said the UA's long-term goal with the airport shuttle program is its institutionalization so that future UA members will not have to re-initiate the program year after year before each break. That would be a huge mistake, as a permanent program will only exacerbate the problems the current program creates.

One of the best things undergrads can do during their brief time at Penn is to help this city grow by using its resources and adding to city coffers in the process. I'm sure students are hip to the bar and restaurant scene and many partake of Philadelphia's lively artistic and cultural offerings. So why stop there?

You are not only a student at Penn, but also a resident of this city. Embrace your inner Philadelphian. Ride SEPTA and encounter real Philadelphians on the region's trains, the buses and the trolleys.

And have a happy Thanksgiving.

Rene Alvarez is a sixth-year History Ph.D. candidate from Chicago, Ill. His e-mail address is alvarez@dailypennsylvanian.com. Rico Suave normally appears on Tuesdays.

Comments (10)

Perfect Competition is all I have to say... maybe you're just jealous because you are a grad student. To think that 2 days will significantly affect SEPTA's business... that's funnny.

Mr. Alvarez, the ideas insinuated in your article are so foolish that even I, SEPTA's General Manager, felt obligated to comment on just how preposterous they are. The idea that any consumer in a free market economy has ANY obligation to support something that does not maximize their personal utility is, plainly, absurd. Here's a quote directly from you: "But just because something is easier and cheaper does not inherently make it better, particularly for the long term." Are you SERIOUS? This is the most flawed argument I've heard in quite some time. If you're going to make a statement like this, at least define "better" so we can know what in the world you're talking about. At SEPTA, we like to think that easier and cheaper DOES inherently make something better, and we strive to provide "easier" and "cheaper" every day. Obviously we are failing somewhere if we continue to lose money every year in such a troubling fashion. Consumers have no obligation to the market; rather, the market has an obligation to consumers - to meet their demands. If a firm can meet a market need, it will sustain itself with profit. If a firm fails to meet a market need, the market shuts it out because it is NOT needed. A pretty simple concept - although perhaps not so simple for a Ph.D candidate in History. Perhaps there's a reason you're studying History in your 6th year and not Economics. Why don't you leave the Economics to those who know what they're talking about, smart guy?

Friends and colleagues -- nothing wrong with disagreeing. No reason to make it personal. Leave the petty insults to the politicians.

I hate SEPTA. The drivers are rude, and I really have no desire to rub shoulders with smelly, poor people. You better believe I'll be utilizing the shuttle tomorrow to get to the airport.

To call a (semi-) public transportation service that will carry hundreds, perhaps thousands of students to the airport wasteful is simply ludicrous. While the shuttles may draw a few students away from SEPTA, it will undoubtedly attract as many, if not more students who would have taken a cab to the airport instead. That "long five blocks" that you so pompously noted students will have to walk is more like 12-plus for those of us who live in the high rises and beyond. Couple that with the heavy luggage that some of us are toting and it's no wonder why many students are willing to pay six or seven dollars to split a cab with other travelers. Do you seriously think a dollar in savings and the (misguided) notion of saving SEPTA is incentive enough to get them to take the train? Not too mention, are you naive enough to believe that most of the students who will take the bus wouldn't have taken cabs instead? Now, let's look at what the bus does: It offers a mass transit option specifically tailored for our campus that will bring students directly to the airport for a very reasonable price, all the while saving countless gallons of gas from would-be taxi trips, and helping to alleviate the exacerbation of what will already be a holiday-clogged expressway. What awful and lazy people Penn students are!

Quoting the current fare to be $1.30 is a bit misleading; to go to the airport by taking the regional rail from the South Street station is $5.50 one way. While $11.00 round trip may not seem to be a lot to you, for some undergrads like me, an additional $11.00 on top of airfare makes it just too expensive to justify going home for Thanksgiving, especially with winter break around the corner. Paying SEPTA "$10,000" to save it from its $37.5 million deficit may sound nice to you, but calling the shuttle to the airport "completely unwarranted" is ludicrous because it ignores the fact that some students may not be as affluent as you are. Including winter break and spring break, students such as myself can save $33.00, more than a third of my airfare to go home. Please, get off your high horse and understand that some undergrads are not as shallow and as lazy as you seem to believe, nor are they as privileged and as entitled as you evidently are. Perhaps you need to embrace your inner Penn self and encounter some real Penn undergrads. And have a happy Thanksgiving.

Why not protest all forms of transportation not provided by SEPTA? Or impose a special tax on those who choose to walk to work or to class-- SEPTA deserves that revenue too, don't you think?

Making the argument that a two day shuttle has any measurable impact on SEPTA's yearly revenue is ridiculous. Furthermore, the idea that Penn students (or any Philadelphians) have a personal obligation to support SEPTA is foolsh. Using your logic, you may want to get started on an article railing against the elitist taxi establishment as well as those SEPTA killing cyclists. I guess good article ideas are getting hard to come by. This once is a joke

John is right on about the fare - an error that should not have passed by editors. But as one of those Penn students who pay essentially nothing to attend due to a low-income background, I gotta say it's absurd to complain about a $5.50 fare. If you're a Penn student, chances are you're dropping way more on each meal (especially if you have a meal plan), not to mention the college necessities (alcohol). The R1 will get you to the airport faster than Penn's shuttle at certain times of the day, and cabs charge outrageous fares. You absolutely have an obligation to support SEPTA. SEPTA is a commuter system without which the city would struggle to operate (remember the last strike? Not cool.) If you live in Philly and take advantage of services provided by individuals that rely on SEPTA to get to and from work each day, you should do whatever you can to support SEPTA. Not to mention the fact that it's always nice to be around people who aren't Penn students, in an effort to understand Philadelphia from the point of view of its non-Ivy League residents.

You can't be serious. You are complaining about a $5.50 one-way SEPTA fare to the airport? SEPTA gets you from Univ City to the airport in 15 or 20 minutes. Try doing that on 76 on a holiday weekend. Are you aware that the flat rate to take a cab there is $26 each way? I ride SEPTA almost daily, and I pay taxes in Philadelphia and Pennsylvania. And I resent the fact that my $45,000 tuition subsidizes this ridiculously unnecessary service for lazy students who don't have anything close to a realistic grasp on reality. Take SEPTA, for christ sake. It's already there, and it's cheap. [QUOTE id="14b6936b-daa9-405f-a029-991154c7f7f7"]Quoting the current fare to be $1.30 is a bit misleading; to go to the airport by taking the regional rail from the South Street station is $5.50 one way. While $11.00 round trip may not seem to be a lot to you, for some undergrads like me, an additional $11.00 on top of airfare makes it just too expensive to justify going home for Thanksgiving, especially with winter break around the corner. Paying SEPTA "$10,000" to save it from its $37.5 million deficit may sound nice to you, but calling the shuttle to the airport "completely unwarranted" is ludicrous because it ignores the fact that some students may not be as affluent as you are. Including winter break and spring break, students such as myself can save $33.00, more than a third of my airfare to go home. Please, get off your high horse and understand that some undergrads are not as shallow and as lazy as you seem to believe, nor are they as privileged and as entitled as you evidently are. Perhaps you need to embrace your inner Penn self and encounter some real Penn undergrads. And have a happy Thanksgiving.[/QUOTE]

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