Clark College, WSUV address student transportation

If Clark College and Washington State University Vancouver staged a green-off to figure out which one is more environmentally friendly, Clark would probably win. At least, that is, when it comes to promoting public transportation.

Rising fuel costs have played a role, of course; at WSUV 53 students bought a $60 C-Tran bus pass for this semester, compared with 40 students per semester last year.

At Clark, the numbers are more dramatic: 1,008 students signed up last fall quarter for the subsidized, $12 C-Tran quarterly passes, and nearly that many students signed up just one week into this year.

Then again, maybe WSUV should get some kudos for encouraging carpooling.
Parking passes cost between $50 and $100 every semester. Add that to a $40 tank of gas every week, and students are forking over about $1,000 a semester in gas, car payments, parking pass and insurance.

For freshman Saybere Jones, 18, driving is the only option. Riding the bus would be cheaper, but would take him two hours from his home in Camas.

“Even if it would take me one hour, I would take the bus,” Jones said. He carpools, which still runs about $20 in gas a week.

And don’t get him started on finding a job: The job market is tough as it is, and then “you can’t get a job in certain areas because it costs too much to drive all the way to a minimum-wage job,” Jones said.