To the editor:

Here’s another good reason to support the T: increasing academic success. After nearly 20 years on the faculty at Kansas University, it’s clear to me that one of the biggest predictors of academic failure is car ownership. Having a car means paying lots of money, whether for financing, insurance, maintenance or ever-increasing fuel costs. Money for a car requires income (that is, if parents aren’t shelling out car expenses in addition to college tuition, housing, books, etc.) Income means working for a salary in addition to going to classes, studying, and taking advantage of KU’s abundant resources.

Students who own cars choose work over learning. They often go to jobs instead of to libraries, museums, lectures, plays, or concerts or classes. (I had two students this semester who confessed that they missed most of my classes because they had to be at work at the same time as my course! I’ll bet they were working to pay for gas.)

I did not own a car until I was a married student getting a Ph.D. at Harvard. Before then, I walked, biked or rode public transportation practically everywhere I went. I don’t know how I would have ever gotten as far if I’d had to work to pay the expenses of having a car. Mass transit is an investment in our children’s education and their parents’ happiness. Given the hazards of young drivers, it will also benefit their health and general public safety.

Everyone wins.

John W. Hoopes,
Lawrence