By Ryan Fournier
As of June, Clallam Transit is offering a direct line to the eastern reaches of the Peninsula. The Strait Shot, number 123, carries passengers between Gateway Transit Center in Port Angeles and Bainbridge Island Ferry Terminal, where travelers can catch a boat to Seattle. The Strait Shot makes two trips a day, Monday through Saturday, and one trip on Sunday.
With a PC bus pass, students can take the trip for five dollars. If a person wants to go across the water to Seattle, it’s free to walk onto the eastbound ferry at Bainbridge Island, the Strait Shot’s last stop. Coming back costs $8.35 (ages 19-64). All told, for less than $20 a student can go from Port Angeles to Seattle and back. That’s less than one third the cost of the Dungeness Line.
PC’s student bus pass, paid for by a $16 add on to quarterly tuition per student, includes free passage on most Clallam and Jefferson County busses.
The deal began as a conversation between PC and Clallam Transit about taking the pressure of campus parking and promoting environmental health via shared transportation, according to Rick Ross, associate dean for athletics and student life.
The Associated Student Council negotiated the deal. “They were shrewd,” laughed Ross. “I think Clallam Transit had a higher number in mind.” Also, he explained, it was understood that not everyone would ride the bus. Many would pay the fee purely for the benefit of others, much like a tax. For those who used it, it was the difference between $36 a month and five dollars for the whole quarter.
After the deal was made, students voted to add the original quarterly charge of five dollars per person in 2010. In subsequent years the fee has gone from five to seven dollars, then from seven to eight dollars when Jefferson Transit was included. An eight dollar parking lot maintenance fee has been added, bringing the grand total to the $16 per quarter students now pay. The regular adult monthly bus pass through Clallam Transit costs $36.