Opinion: SDSU should make public transport free to meet climate goals

Providing free public transportation to San Diego State University students and employees makes SDSU one of, if not the best, university campus in the nation.

SDSU, like many other universities, is committed to achieving operational carbon neutrality by 2040 and full carbon neutrality by 2050. To achieve this, the University has developed and is implementing a Climate Action Plan consisting of multiple ‘Climate Actions’, each with its own renewal status. .

Some sub-items have been checked, but climate action is not fully completed and a significant number of sub-items are behind schedule. SDSU must prioritize the completion of climate action to reduce carbon emissions to the greatest possible extent if it is to meet its pledged targets.

Free public transportation for students and employees is the single most impactful action. This is because commuting to campus overwhelmingly accounts for 40% of his SDSU’s greenhouse gas emissions. More than 80% of his faculty and 63% of students commute to campus in single-person cars.

These numbers are staggering and show that sustainable commuting like public transport must be a priority if SDSU wants to meet its climate goals. SDSU officials know this. SDSU’s transportation program is designed to reduce the university’s carbon footprint by reducing the number of car-only commutes, and to facilitate transportation diversions on and off campus.

To further insult the issue, SDSU’s Climate Action Plan explicitly states: In the student ridership during the first few years of program operation. However, only ‘some moves’ have been made within the transport climate action sub-item 2.1.3 task ‘Exploring the feasibility of a universal transit path’ and further progress has stalled completely. doing.

But the potential remains for a universal transit pass, free of charge for students and employees, that could make SDSU one of the best university campuses in the country. It has to do with the future of Mission Valley colleges.

SDSU Mission Valley is not just the future of college, it’s the future of San Diego. With 80 acres of park and open space, four miles of bike and pedestrian paths, Snapdragon Stadium, and 4,600 residential units for students, faculty, and the larger community, he SDSU Mission Valley is a spectacular sight. Such an investment.

In addition to all of this, SDSU Mission Valley will provide “facilities to increase bicycle and pedestrian mobility … incentives to use transit …[and] The site will facilitate increased trolley use with the construction of a cozy trolley plaza adjacent to the existing on-site Metropolitan Transit System trolley station, and will also accommodate a planned Purple Line transit station. ”

Well this all sounds great! So how does the Universal Transit Pass improve this and make SDSU the best university campus in the country? Downtown San Diego will be open to SDSU students and employees free of charge.

Think about it: no parking, no traffic, no hassles. Just hop on the green line from the SDSU already on campus and connect to everything San Diego has to offer. Better yet, if your home is in the SDSU Mission Valley, the Green Line will take you to campus in minutes.

Or, if you’re a commuting student or employee who doesn’t live on campus, your commute will be virtually free!

We understand that MTS is not perfect. The problem of public transportation has been a long-standing problem, not just in San Diego, but in the SDSU community. But let’s look at the numbers. About 81% of SDSU students live off campus. This equates to approximately 29,000 students commuting to campus this fall semester alone, not to mention approximately 6,900 faculty and staff commuting to campus. And with record enrollments this year alone, the commuting student population is on the rise.

San Diego has made great strides in public transportation accessibility and affordability, and SDSU is at the forefront of this movement. Both the University of San Diego and his SDSU now offer discounts on semester passes. But SDSU needs to go one step further and catch up with UC San Diego, which offers a universal transit pass.

I am a student using a semester pass provided by SDSU and this system is not the future. Free public transport is the future and SDSU needs to get on board.

John Estrada is a senior at San Diego State University studying Human Geography and Global Studies.