Driving on Empty
Rachael Salloum holds her breath as she watches the price on the gas gauge reach more than $50. Hoping that the numbers slow down before it hits $60, she grips her wallet. The pump finally clicks, stopping at a whopping $80. Feeling dejected, the sophomore psychology major removes her receipt and steps inside her Dodge Caravan, dreading the next time her car will need gas.
Traveling this year has proven to be a difficult task, as drivers pay more for gas than in previous years. Prices reached a record high of more than $4 a gallon – slightly more than a dollar increase since last August – affecting everything from airline fare and baggage procedures to school bus routes in some cities.
The increase left students wondering whether bringing their cars to campus was worth the price.
‘It would add to convenience (having a car on campus), but I just didn’t want the extra expense,’ Salloum said. This past summer, she avoided driving anywhere other than her job with the hopes of saving money.
Michael Miller, a senior English and textual studies major, said he drives because he lives in Jamesville, a city seven miles away from campus, where there is no bus route to Syracuse University.
‘I was pretty nervous about driving this year considering the price,’ Miller said. Although he drives a Volkswagen Jetta, a reasonably fuel-efficient car, he still pays at least $50 to fill up every two weeks.
Miller said having a car is worth it because he lives so close to campus.
‘If I lived farther away, it probably wouldn’t be. But it is a hassle,’ he said.
Economics and international relations professor David Richardson believes gas prices will remain in the $3 to $4 range for several years to come.
‘A little known fact is prices in the 1990s were just really low and currently, we are back to the levels they were in the early 1980s with inflation adjusted,’ Richardson said.
Senior linguistics major Cerise Bell, who lives on South Campus, didn’t let the high prices stop her from driving. Bell spends an average of about $50 to fill her 1993 Buick Skylark and plans to mainly drive locally.
‘Since I’m living in an apartment, I thought having a car would be useful to buy groceries and things,’ Bell said. ‘It just makes things a lot easier. I don’t have to worry about missing the bus to P&C or the mall.’
The Department of Parking and Public Transit made a few changes to its usual bus routes, adding a new CENTRO route providing a one-way trip from Schine Student Center to Wegman’s DeWitt grocery store.
Also, a Fare Deal, an unlimited CENTRO ride pass program, began this year. Students pay $30 a semester for unlimited rides on the Westcott (#30) and Carousel Mall (#50) routes with the program. Other free routes CENTRO offers are a shuttle service for Syracuse students to Carousel Mall every Friday and Saturday from 6 p.m. to 2 a.m., the Connective Corridor route, which takes students to several cultural sites throughout the city, and finally, students have the option of riding the Warehouse route downtown as well.
The Student Association is offering Thanksgiving shuttles this year so students can get rides to New York City, Boston and Philadelphia for only $99 round trip.
Although the addition of more bus routes was intended to make travel easier, for some students like Bell, it just makes it more difficult.
‘I’m pretty confused by the CENTRO schedule,’ Bell said. ‘The last bus for the mall leaves at, like, 9 or something, so it’s just not convenient for me.’
She also cites weather and the option of traveling off-campus as reasons she brought her car. Bell works and uses money from her student loan to pay for transportation. If the price of transportation increases, so does her loan.
Currently, the lowest gas price in the Syracuse area is $3.61, as of Sept. 2.
‘Gas prices aren’t that bad here if you look at it internationally,’ said B.J. Meltzer, an undecided sophomore in the Martin J. Whitman School of Management. ‘It’s much more money in other parts of the world.’
Despite spending as much as $120 filling up his father’s Chevrolet Suburban which he drove this summer, Meltzer said if he had his own car he would drive on campus. Salloum shared a similar opinion.
‘A lot of people brought cars and they still will continue to no matter what,’ she said. ‘It makes life easier.’
Published on September 2, 2008 at 12:00 pm
