<p>Why do I have to pay a MANDATORY fee for a service that I won’t use?</p>
<p>I can’t waive it like SHIP, I can’t get a refund via CARS, and I can’t even sell it without possibly incurring criminal charges and disciplinary action.</p>
<p>Seriously, what the ****?</p>
<p>might as well make use of the bus system then-if you have a car, save yourself the gas money</p>
<p>I just lost my ID card, I will have to buy a new one for $60 unless I somehow find my old ID card… (already had to pay $25 for a new one…)</p>
<p>They are like taxes that pay for public goods like highways. If people that did not use highways were able to choose not to pay the tax, then they would not be built and nobody will be able to use highways. Although $60 does seem high, it is cheaper than what students that need to use the ac transit daily would need to pay. Whether these people should be subsidized by the rest of us is arguable.</p>
<p>Also, you are going to use AC Transit at some point.</p>
<p>Seriously, I do not use $60 worth of transit in a semester.</p>
<p>Also, why should I subsidize students who live further or choose to commute? Why should I pay additional money, so they can have it even cheaper? </p>
<p>I doubt having an option to waive the amount would severely increase the price of the bus pass.
<p>Hence, it’s stupid to not have an option to waive.</p>
<p>not that many don’t use the bunch (note the double negative).</p>
<p>If you use the bus at least thirty times back and forth over the semester, your card is more than paid for</p>
<p>why do people have to pay taxes?
why do people receive social welfare?
Why don’t you live in forest, so that you can hunt for your own food and don’t need to share it?</p>
<p>Because of increased overall welfare. I don’t mind paying taxes that pave roads, jail murders, and provide defense. I benefit off of social welfare programs so that there is less crime and less homelessness etc. I don’t do that because I benefit extremely from an open economy. Simply, I can work my job, and get more food etc than I can from a closed hunter-gatherer economy.</p>
<p>But I do not benefit from this bus pass system.
Simply, your arguments lack relevance.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>One claim is that people do use the full $60 in bus fares. If so, the most students would choose to keep it. No harm done in offering a waiver.</p></li>
<li><p>Like the SHIP waiver, you have to be proactive about waiving it, so only people who value the $60 more than the class pass would choose to waive it. Thus the poor are not forced to pay, as part of their rising tuition, the expenses of others.</p></li>
<li><p>If a large portion of the student population choose to waive it, there is something wrong with the university system. If so many students are dissatisfied, then why should it not become an issue?</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Maybe to some on this forum, $60 is a drop in a bucket. But to others, $60 is a lot. Personally, it’s that extra 7-8 hours I work during midterm season and finals week in order to help make ends meet. </p>
<p>This isn’t even a progressive rate, it’s a rate the targets those who cannot afford it the most. Those who have money would not care for the $60. Those who use the bus pass benefit. But how about the population that can’t afford it and don’t use it? </p>
<p>With the tuition hikes, I know that every dollar is more precious. I feel, at the very least, no matter what you believe, that this is a legitimate concern.</p>
<p>It’s actually kinda worth it compared to some other miscellaneous fees that we have to pay. For instance, there’s that $40-$50 phone bill that they charge you for the dorms even though virtually nobody uses it. At least with the class pass, you have the option of hopping on the 52L to get home if you feel tired or are too lazy to walk.</p>
<p>shut the **** up starry night. stop whining. not everyone want to pay the asuc fees, superb fees, gym fees, and all of the other miscellaneous fees that is required but people still do it because it is beneficial to a lot of people and mainly because required.</p>
<p>This has nothing to do with subsidizing other student’s fees. It’s just a way for the university to partner up with the city and price gouge students. It’s like the telephone bill in the dorms. Who seriously uses a landline in the dorms? Nobody. Yet we all have to chip in some amount for it to be an available resource. ***. Way to use our money efficiently.</p>
<p>And as many have pointed out, lots of students use it and therefore would not waive it if there is such a choice. So, it would only be a minority of students opting out of the AC transit system, which should not even affect the system at all. And *<strong><em>, this is useful only for those who use it. I have a car, why the *</em></strong> would this be useful for me and why must I pay for it? And if I pay for it, wouldn’t it be considered my property and I’m hence allowed to transfer ownership of it by selling it? This is what ****es me off the most-- making me pay for a useless service and not allowing me to sell it to someone who will actually utilize it.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Translation: I don’t want to do anything about it because nobody has and I don’t want anyone else to do anything about it either.</p>
<p>are beastmaster and bestialmaster related by any chance? lol</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>False. Not everyone wants to pay those fees, but why must I be silent about it? I didn’t come to Berkeley to be silent about these issues. If not everyone wants to pay these fees, why shouldn’t these fees come under scrutiny? Beneficial to a lot of people? How many? In which ways? Tell me how?</p>
<p>If my posting is somehow wrong, you have the right to not read it. You also have the right to make intelligent replies. But I also have the right to post my opinions. And I have the right to make counterpoints.</p>
<p>I will keep posting what I think. Isn’t that why we’re on these forums, to let our voices be heard? To let the Berkeley CC community discuss issues and answer questions we deem important?</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>True. Your point is valid. But I also don’t wish to pay those fees either. Fees like ASUC fees etc, I understand. I support an active student government, it adds value to my experience and to my college degree. But for fees like landlines etc, I feel is a concern to be address. Those services are obsolete and useless. Why should we keep paying for them? Why do we have to continue to pay for useless things, when we already pay so much for the things we need. I would rather my landline bill or class pass money go into opening up labs and discussion sections.</p>
<p>My point is, just because there are worse fees out there, doesn’t mean that it’s okay to not question this fee. Especially since we’re on this topic already. I also believe those fees should be abolished too. :S</p>
<p>LOL</p>
<p>beastmaster is my old account. I thought I had lost the password to it so I created this one some time ago. I guess I just typed the password wrong that time I tried to log on to beastmaster.</p>
<p>You know, I completely agree re: the landlines. I think the school’s being forced by the city to keep paying for the maintenance on them since they know that no one would otherwise pay for the service now with cell phones so prevalent.</p>
<p>OTOH, I think the posters against the class pass are missing the point. If you have a car, the purpose of the class pass is meant to be punitive. You are forced to pay more for choosing to drive, so the class pass fee is meant to change your behavior. There’s an interesting implication of the punitive argument–less people are driving and the streets are less clogged (ie, even if you never use the class pass a single day, you are paying to help get less drivers on the roads and you benefit with less people driving). The overall reasoning is that driving still imposes massive externalities on the rest of society–the cost of gas, insurance, the car, etc. are still too low compared to the harm inflicted in terms of increased danger on the streets, greenhouse gases, crowded roads, etc. Berkeley as a city has chosen to discourage driving, so it makes sense for UCB to make incentive structures that are compatible with that goal.</p>
<p>Obviously, letting people opt out of the class pass pretty much destroys the real purpose of discouraging driving.</p>
<p>Webhappy is completely correct, the only problem is that, other than the 51, most AC transit lines suck. Sometimes when I am at Durant and Telegraph waiting for a bus back to Bowles, I contemplate walking a block to the Reverse Perimeter BearTransit stop. I’ve never done it yet but each time I wait 30 min for the 52L I become more likely to do it.</p>
<p>Also the Bus Pass itself if properly used, can save much more than $60. On every trip after the $60 passes (or whatever the official value is), AC transit loses money. A lot of people use it for more trips than it is work, which overall cause problems. If some people opt out, it could very easily tank the system.</p>
<p>To clarify my last message.</p>
<p>Essentially it is like a gym membership, everyone uses it at least a couple times. Some people overuse it and get more out of it than they actually pay. Most people use enough that they get about as much back as they pay. Finally, there are the people that barely use it; these are the people the profit to keep the system running.</p>
<p>If the 10% or so of students who almost never use their Class Pass opt out, the system fails.</p>
<p>I think the class pass is totally worth it. While you’re here (and not cramming for exams), you should explore the cities around Berkeley. AC runs through most (if not all) of the East Bay. And don’t forget about the free rides to SF! </p>
<p>AC > BART.</p>
<p>In my time at Berkeley. I have never stepped into the RSF except for Caltopia… =_= </p>
<p>Why would the system fail?
Why can’t the 90% who use it pay like $6 more?</p>
<p>x=extra cost per person if 10% opt out
{I personally think FAR less than 10% will opt out}</p>
<p>$60 - Cost of Bus Pass</p>
<p>100% * $60 = 90% * (60+x)
x= 6.66</p>
<p>So the other 90% can just actually pay for all the extra that they use. For people who really use it that much, $6 wouldn’t matter much for them.</p>
<p>^ I was talking about a regular gym (e.g. 24 Hour Fitness, Bally Total Fitness, etc.), not the RSF.</p>