Posted on: Saturday, February 16, 2002

Bill would let college students ride free

By Robbie Dingeman
Advertiser City Hall Writer

College students would get a "free" ride on city buses under a proposal by City Council member Duke Bainum.

Bainum yesterday introduced a bill that would allow city transportation officials to negotiate with O'ahu's colleges and universities to pay an annual lump-sum fee that would enable their students to ride TheBus by showing a university ID card.

Bainum said the plan would get more students on the bus, easing traffic jams and parking congestion near colleges.

He said student ridership shot up 71 to 200 percent in similar programs in 35 Mainland cities. Some universities paid for it out of student fees amounting to $24 per student a year; others used parking fees to cover all or part of the cost.

Bainum noted that the University of Illinois was able to eliminate 1,000 on-campus parking spaces and put off construction of a $5 million parking garage.

Doris Ching, vice president for student affairs at the University of Hawai'i, called the idea "a great opportunity to address some of our parking traffic and traffic issues." She said the only issue is figuring out how to pay for it.

Bainum said if a pilot program is adopted and succeeds, it could be expanded to younger students.