Lorain County Transit fares will soon take a jolt upwards. On Dec. 15, Lorain County commissioners will vote on a price hike for the transportation system’s fares on all of its fixed and dial-a-ride routes, which includes the express route from Oberlin to the Cleveland airport. Route 21, from Oberlin to Elyria, is also facing route changes.

What does this mean for the Oberlin students who will swarm around the LCT sign during the start of winter break to be taken to the airport on Route 33? Nothing this semester, as any approved changes will go into effect Jan. 1, 2006. Tom Ferguson, LCT’s general manager, fully expects the proposal to pass.

“We haven’t increased our fares in ten years,” he said, citing the price of gas among other things as reasons for change.

Before this semester, Oberlin students could ride the LCT bus for free thanks to the involvement of an organization called OPASS, which funneled College money towards the fare. The fare is currently two dollars. The new proposal’s initial effect was to raise all fares from two dollars to five dollars and to add an extra stop on Route 21.

On Thursday night, however, the Oberlin city council chambers hosted a public meeting to discuss the proposals. In attendance were members of Oberlin College Transit Committee, a student-run organization launched last spring to improve what many perceive to be unreliable service on LCT’s part. OCTC works with the College in providing students with information about LCT service, as well as representing students in vocalizing the need for additional service during peak travel days on Route 33 to Cleveland Hopkins International Airport.

College sophomore and OCDC member Ezra Pincus-Roth, negotiated a three dollar fare for students who show their OCID. He clarified that the bus fares College students pay to the LCT drivers are not what subsidize their ride. The rest of the community would still pay five dollars.

“Fares go towards increased busing,” he said, like the increased times between Dec. 20 and Dec. 23 when students typically leave campus for Winter Break. The student activity fee, meanwhile, goes towards paying for the actual route.

The combined funds that the College contributes add up to around $22,000, said Pincus-Roth, which is about a third of the cost for Route 33. LCT’s proposed three dollars student exception would be somewhat experimental in allowing LCT to find out how many students actually ride the LCT bus and then basing future price adjustments on that number.

Students involved in OCTC, including Pincus-Roth, have been working to better inform LCT riders at Oberlin for the past semester via making posters and a website (http://www and adjusting out-of-date LCT route maps, among other things.

“Information is a very important aspect of this project,” Pincus-Roth said.

OCTC puts as much stake in its hopes for the future as it does its current negotiations. They are researching supplemental transportation to replace the LCT on Route 33, though group members question whether it will ever be cost-effective. The group hopes to recruit other College departments, such as the office of Admissions and those that work with alumni and international students, who may have interest in a cheaper transit system.

Another project in the early research stages is a Friday and Saturday late night route from Cleveland to Oberlin, which would benefit Oberlin students and town members who want to spend evening time in the city. “I’m trying to get in touch with Carleton [College in Northfield, Minn.] — they have a bus co-op that runs from the college to Minneapolis, a 40-mile distance,” said Pincus-Roth.

Aliza Weidenbaum, a member of the Oberlin community, expressed an interest in starting a volunteer transportation service that would run similar to the Oberlin Student Co-operative Association, in which students sign up for job time slots that fit in with their schedules. Although she usually does not use LCT, Weidenbaum sympathized with town members who use LCT to get to work in Elyria.

As Pincus-Roth pointed out, expanding student knowledge of the LCT system is essential for pursuing the group’s desired direction.

“Public transportation is only efficient and environmentally friendly if there are enough people using it,” he said.