Op-Ed
Round, Round, Get Around
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Byrne it Down
.jpg "Byrne it Down")
Welcome back all you interns and wage slaves, to Cornell U-topia, where the newspapers are free, meritocracy reigns, and every day is casual Friday. Let it be a balm to the beating you just took from the real world.
If you’re a freshman and spent the summer prancing about “enjoying yourself,” congratulations on your two weeks in Cancun. Still, you should know that though I spent my days on the Long Island Railroad, the announcer at Jamaica station had a real Jamaican accent. Instant tropical retreat sans the airfare, you vacationing fools.
Yes, my commute was zesty. I kept tabs on the moldering sandwich next to the Sutphin Blvd. escalator and took note of interesting-looking pigeons on the platform. I played “Why Is This Pole Slimy?” on the subway and “Asleep or Dead?” on the train.
And the cost of these diversions? Skip the next paragraph if math makes you nervous.
Say, like me, you are traveling from “Zone 9” on Long Island to Jamaica, Queens, 36 miles away. $17 for a peak roundtrip ticket, plus $4 roundtrip for your subway ride amounts to $21 per day. That comes to $105 for a work-week commute. The same trip made in a car with decent gas mileage at a fuel price of $4.67/ gallon, would cost about $50 per week. But good luck finding free parking.
To make doubly sure that no one of average economic means can infiltrate the City of New York, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority is seeking a substantial fare increase for July of next year, and another hike in 2011. Time to get the hell out of Dodge.
But where New York is failing, Ithaca is shuffling towards improvement.
My personal favorite, the direct route to Wegmans, appeared on the TCAT bus repertoire last fall. Gone are the days of TCAT pin-balling car-less shoppers between buses for 45 minutes, before spewing them back out on campus, tense and angry at food. Freshmen no longer have to pretend to like the guy with the car; the guy with the car needn’t suspect his friends of using him to fill their rooms with cookie dough and Pirate’s Booty. On this note: Keep those micro-fridges well-stocked, my dear freshmen. There may come a time when illness, school work, or mounting laziness makes dining hall excursions too difficult. And when the chips are down, Luna Bars and Gatorade won’t cut it.
Yet more accolades for TCAT: Tompkins County’s trial 50 cent off-peak bus fare, which was offered starting in July, increased ridership by 33 percent this summer, and created a lower-than-expected deficit of $15,000/ month. The TCAT board may vote to extend the 50 cent fare into the fall. You could ride the bus for a quarter of the price of guacamole at That Burrito Place.
For those of you who prefer the freedom of an automobile there is, as of June 2008, Ithaca Carshare, a rental service that is available to drivers over 18. Members receive their own key which can be used to operate any of the company’s six vehicles, and can make reservations online or by phone.
And finally, hats off to the Student Assembly for proposing a free door-to-door, student-run safety shuttle service, an idea that has crossed the mind of anyone who has ever had to walk home alone after midnight. If the administration approves the program, as it should, it could be implemented by next fall. If the administration does not approve the program, it should be made to walk from Collegetown to North Campus at 2 a.m., alone and slightly inebriated.
My only remaining complaint about transportation at Cornell is the lack of parking spaces, and the tickets I accumulate during study week, when I mistake Mondays for Sundays and bushes for people. But I suppose crappy parking is the price you pay for a beautiful campus.
To the freshmen: Do not scoff at the bus, the rented car, the safety shuttle. People may tell you that you’ll get used to walking. This is a lie perpetuated by generations of Cornellians to boost matriculation and cultivate a mystique of cheerful vigor and enormous calf muscles.
There are certain spots that will always torment you: Libe Slope, that staircase behind Martha Van, Cook Street, Williams Street, the midway point on your snowy trek to a 9 a.m. class in Warren Hall, Buffalo Street, that staircase after crossing the suspension bridge from North Campus. Each of you will cultivate a personal grudge against some topographical feature. And at your 20-year reunion you can argue over which winter was coldest, which staircase the steepest, and which hill the bitchiest.
Or, when the weather turns mean or your calves can’t stand it, you can hop on a bus.
Carolyn Byrne is a senior in the College of Arts and Sciences. She can be contacted at cbyrne@cornellsun.com. Byrne it Down appears alternate Tuesdays this semester.