Teacher Transportation Trouble

Cindy Halifax moved from Windsor to

Mississauga with her parents and her 15

year old brother Jason in May. They hired

Al’s Moving Company and got the job

done in only 2 days.

A couple of weeks later they were all

settled in and Cindy managed to get a full

time job as a waitress at a restaurant

down the street.

Cindy is 22 years old and is quite

accomplished. She completed her four

year undergraduate degree and applied to

three Bachelor of Education programs in

Ontario.

One evening in February Cindy starts to

prepare herself for her interview the following

day with the University of Ontario (UOIT).

She has never visited the university campus

before and begins to plan out the route she

will take to get there.

She checks the Greyhound Bus Schedule

to figure out when she needs to leave and

when she would arrive in Oshawa.

Unfortunately the bus would not be able to

take her all of the way to campus, so she

consults the Durham Transit website to

find a local connecting bus.

After getting on the wrong bus, Cindy

realizes she is running out of time so

jumps into a taxi and gets a ride the rest of

the way to school.

She arrives on campus and finds her way

over to the building where the interview is

being held. She signs in, writes a case

study, and finally has her interview.

Afterwards she is feeling happy and wants to

celebrate, so she calls her friend Amanda

who lives in Toronto. They decide to meet for

drinks that evening so Cindy goes online to

find a GO Bus that will take her into the city,

where Amanda will pick her up.

After a long evening at a bar, Cindy takes

Amanda up on her offer to spend the

night. The following day Amanda offers to

drive Cindy back to Windsor since she will

be heading that way to visit her

grandfather.

A few months after Cindy’s interview, she

arrives home and sees a letter on the

kitchen table for her. She opens it and

reads her acceptance letter to the

Bachelor of Education program at UOIT.

Cindy realizes that she has a lot of

planning to do, so gets started right away.

She checks her account balance and

realizes that it will be difficult to cover

tuition and all of her costs.

Cindy goes online and fills out an

application for a student loan right away.

Then she begins to consider her

transportation options for the following

year as it will be a 104 mile round trip

daily.

Her parents offer to lend their car to her for

the academic year, but stress that it will be

up to Cindy to cover her own gas and

parking expenses.

Happy to have this option she heads back

to the computer to investigate gas prices

as well as parking costs.

She knows from reading her information

packages that during Math Camp in

August parking will be free. Cindy is still

worrying about her budget so decides to

look into renting a room in Oshawa.

She phones the school to find out the cost

to live in residence and what it includes

then inquires about off campus housing.

She goes to the website to see if there are

any rooms available and narrows the

search down to an all inclusive room in a

house, a basement apartment, and an

apartment building.

Cindy consults the calendar for the school

year (August 15 – May 4) and notes that it

includes three placement blocks.

Although the program is quite intensive

she is happy to see that they get three

weeks of Christmas vacation as well a

reading week in February.

Cindy decides that she would like to speak

to previous students, so she locates a

website that they have created and joins a

chat group.

She asks about managing school as well

as a part time job, because she knows she

will need that income to subsidize her

costs, whether she lives at home or

transfers to the Oshawa location.

She also ends up chatting with a group of

teacher candidates beginning the program

with her, and discovers that there is

someone else who lives in her area who

tells her commuting by bus costs twice as

much as her trip to Toronto.

She also offers to carpool if Cindy is

interested and Cindy tells her she will let her

know as soon as she has looked into all of

her options.

Cindy needs to make a decision

Challenge:

Where would you choose to live?

How would you get to school?

How much would it cost?

Justify your answers.

Car Specifications

• 2003 Toyota Corolla CE Sedan

• 1.8 L Automatic

• Unleaded Fuel

• Fuel Economy EPA Highway (l/100km):6.2

• Curb Weight (kg) 1, 175

UOIT/Durham Parking

• Founders lot 2 or 3

• $460/year

• $230/term

• $80/month

• $20/week

• $10 refundable charge for swipe card

Durham Transit

• Student Fare RatesEffective September 1, 2006

• Student Cash Fare (single ride)$2.25• Student Monthly Pass – *Unrestricted $75.00• Student Monthly Pass - *Restricted $62.50• Student Multi Ride (10) $22.00 • Full-time Student *FREE

Part-time Job

• Waitress

• $7.25/hour

• Average 15 hrs/week (double over

Christmas holidays and reading week)

• Tips

Residence

All fees due beginning of fall semester• Simcoe Village

South Hall/Central Hall$4,500

• North Hall$4,900

• South Village (must also purchase compulsory meal plan)

All suites$4,900

Off Campus Housing

• Room in 4 bedroom house, all inclusive $500/mth,

6km from school on bus route

• Basement Apartment, all inclusive except phone,

$600/mth, 10km from school on bus route

• 1 Bedroom Apartment, includes heat/water,

$550/mth, 4km from school on bus route

Course Calendar

• Placement 1: 4 weeks

• Placement 2: 3 weeks

• Placement 3: 6 weeks

• Time off: 4 weeks (X-mas, reading week)

• In-Class Time: 21 weeks

Gas Prices

• Gas prices fluctuate, but will plateau

around $1/litre

• Gas prices will rise around holidays and

prior to long weekends

Carpooling

• Half of the parking cost for the year

• Half of the gas needed for the year

• Half of the cost of oil changes for the year

(every 5000 km)

Greyhound Bus

• One Way Ticket

• Windsor to Oshawa

• Student Fare

• $46.40

Go Bus Schedule

Adult single-ride ticket $8.15  

Adult two-ride ticket $16.30 

Adult 10-ride ticket $74.25 

Adult monthly pass $263.00 

Student 10-ride ticket $66.50 

Student monthly pass $195.00 

*From Oshawa(UOIT) to Toronto(Union)

Taxi Fare

• Blue Line $2.50 for first 71.4 m, $0.10 for every 71.4 m after

• Yellow Cab

Flag (Includes first 1/13th KM) $2.70$1.58 Per Kilometer

$28.20 Per Hour

• City Taxi $2.75 for the first 0.235 km, $0.25 or each additional 0.190 km

Meal Plans• The Ultimate

– 14 meals per week plus $250.00 flex dollars, $3495.00 Tax Free

• The Hearty Eater – 12 meals per week plus $350.00 flex dollars, $3425.00 Tax Free

• The Commuter – 10 meals per week plus $450.00 flex dollars, $3150.00 Tax Free

• The Commuter II – 320 meals per year plus $400.00 flex dollars, $3295.00 Tax Free

• The Light Eater – 250 meals per year plus $400.00 flex dollars, $2641.82 + GST

• The Mini Plan – 200 meals per year plus $450.00 flex dollars, $2267.99 + GST