My daughter attends a university in small town/rural area in the US. She lives about two miles from the furthest edge of campus in an old farm house with housemates. She has a car but usually walks because parking on campus is extortionate/impossible. If the weather is bad or she just doesn't feel like walking she can call about an hour ahead to book a ride-share van that charges a flat fee of $4 per stop for one or two people (I think the pricing structure is to accommodate elderly people with carers, who are the other group who use the service aside from students).
Anyway, if she's around, one housemate in particular literally always hops on the van when my daughter calls it, but never splits the cost. If my daughter directly says 'hey, housemate, it's going to be raining today, do you want to split the van?' the housemate will say 'no it's fine I'll walk' but will then hop right on the van when it arrives because 'you called it anyway might as well not let it go to waste".
Is this completely cheeky and worth an argument over, or is it OK because the housemate is using something (the 'free' space on the van) that she might not have paid for for herself but that would otherwise go to waste? I can see both sides to be fair, which is strange for me I'm usually very black-and-white about these things!
I know some of you will be desperate to tell me this is low-stakes and petty and none of my business. I know it's petty, it is my business because my daughter talked to me about it, and I KNOW this is low-stakes but it's also a sort of interesting in a thought-exercise way and I thought it might make for interesting discussion. So if you're going to tell me off anyway please crack on but you're just wasting your breath. My daughter has already made a decision about how to deal with it - now that it's not negative 10 degrees and snow most days, she has obtained a bike.