From The Local News………………
From the Vancouver Sun and the Vancouver Province
Opinion: TransLink's math on U-Pass fraud is questionable
One in six students would have to resell their transit pass each year to cause $15 million in losses
By Stephen Hume, Vancouver Sun –
Forgive my doubting nature, but I'm not ready to buy the claim that students reselling transit passes forced upon them as a condition of enrolling at many universities and colleges is really costing TransLink $15 million a year.
To begin with, by my arithmetic -admittedly imprecise, but then so is the evidence supporting claims of significant student transit fraud -one in six students would have to resell his or her non-transferable U-Pass each academic year for TransLink to lose that much.
Secondly, extrapolating lost revenue on the basis of passes that have simply disappeared -lost in the mail, left in a jeans pocket at the laundry, buried at the bottom of a handbag, used as a bookmark and forgotten, mishandled by institutions -is really an imaginary cost that may not even be occurring.
TransLink says investigators found 29 U-Passes either listed for sale or sought by prospective buyers on Craigslist, up from two postings on the website several weeks earlier. This may represent a trend -or it may not. Whatever it is, it's a tiny sample.
While even a small black market in discounted transit passes certainly deserves concern, 29 U-Passes amounts to about two per cent of the more than 1,500 a month that would have to be sold during the academic year for TransLink to lose what it claims.
One of TransLink's complaints is students who "receive" a U-Pass "provided" by their college or university but then use it after they've dropped studies. But students must pay up to $200 per term in non-refundable U-Pass fees under levies from which they can't opt out, whether they need the pass or not.
Forcing students to pay for the pass, refusing a refund when their enrolment status changes and complaining that they use what they've paid for while it's still valid seems more than a tad unjust.
TransLink was quoted Thursday as saying it might have to cancel the student pass program if the problem persists but was soon distancing itself from what seems to be an overthe-top response. A spokesman later said that "in the fullness of time," TransLink might have to reconsider should the U-Pass program prove unsustainable due to student fraud.
Talk about getting out the elephant gun to hunt fleas.
TransLink itself says there are solutions to this. Meetings are already scheduled to discuss a universal electronic fare card that could replace transit passes and permit TransLink to cancel any U-Pass it believes misused. And how about a lowtech solution like asking students to present their college ID along with the U-Pass?
Some anti-fraud organizations estimate that up to 15 per cent of insurance claims are either exaggerated or fraudulent.
So, anybody in favour of ending auto insurance and shutting down ICBC because clients are seven times more likely to precipitate a fraudulent act than the evidence indicates is the incidence of buying or selling non-refundable student transit passes on Craigslist?
U-Pass woes
hours.I spent five years working on courses not even taught on campus. Through it all, I was deducted the $120 three times a year for the U-Pass in my fees. I had no need for it and I was subsidizing the program so full-time students could benefit.
When adults are charged $360 per year for a service they can't use, some will turn to selling the pass on Craigslist to recover some of the money. If U-Pass was a voluntary program, this would not happen.
Renata Hyrman, Richmond
Read more: http://www.theprovince.com/Pass+woes/4858425/story.html#ixzz1NrK0w6CQ
Forest Grove residents don't benefit from gondola project
As a resident of the Forest Grove community, I deeply disagree with the Burnaby Mountain gondola project.
TransLink has been completely unethical with the entire consultation process. There have been no open dialogues between residents and TransLink officials. They have concealed the stakeholder's involvement in this project and fast-tracked its approval.
We are not a resort community or tourist attraction. We enjoy our conservation land, hiking trails, salmon-spawning streams, wildlife habitat and elementary school just the way they are.
We'd receive no benefit from having 3,000 people whisked above our heads all day long, but the luxury SFU development of UniverCity can now add another sexy selling feature to its list!
Julie Ponsford, Burnaby
