In recent years, University Transportation has partnered with Capital Area Transit and Triangle Transit to provide students with GoPasses , allowing them to travel around Raleigh and the Triangle without a car.

GoPasses are free and act as a convenient way for students to travel. They are valid for an entire academic year, starting in August. While receiving a pass is free, a replacement costs five dollars. S tudents are only allowed two replacements per year.

Many students find GoPasses useful, helping them get to Crabtree Valley Mall for work and shopping, to downtown Raleigh for a night out or to Chapel Hill to visit friends.

Claire Richards, undeclared sophomore, signed up for her GoPass at the beginning of the school year at one of the many festivals held on campus to welcome students.

“Last semester, I used it about once a week,” Richards said. “I go to the mall, downtown and I’ve used it to go to Chapel Hill.”

Though Richards has friends with cars, she says the use of her GoPass allows her more freedom to travel whenever she wants, without relying on the whims of her friends. The pass permits students to use Triangle Transit buses which travel in the Triangle area, as well as Capital Area Transit which transports people throughout Raleigh.

Typically, students who don’t use GoPasses have found other ways of traveling.

“I have my own car on campus,” Jessica Caudle , freshman in English education said. “It seems easier to just drive places than to wait for a bus to get here, then take their round-about route to get places.”

Most students who choose not to get a GoPass are students who, like Caudle , have their cars on campus already, and would rather pick up their vehicles from parking lots than deal with the bus system.

In the hopes to help her friends avoid the confusion of the bus routes, Caudle said that she is more than happy to drive them around wherever they need to go.

“I don’t mind taking driving adventures,” Caudle said.

The consensus on campus seems to be that the GoPasses are well-worth student time and effort.

“GoPasses are important for students on campus,” Alex Thomas, junior in chemical engineering, said. “Most students don’t have cars, and [ GoPasses ] give them the chance to travel around the Triangle.”

Bus routes and timetables are available to students on the Wolfline website. Thomas claims the site is, for the most part, an easy to navigate and useful tool to have when planning an excursion around the Triangle.

Some students, like Caudle , worry that part of their tuition might be going to pay for this program that they don’t use.

“Maybe they could make it optional,” Caudle said. “Or substitute paying for the GoPasses by paying for a parking permit.”

However, not everyone shares Caudles worries.

“I can’t imagine that the University is paying too much [for the GoPasses ],” Thomas said. “Only a handful of my friends actually even have GoPasses.”

Most students, like Thomas and Richards, believe the GoPass is a useful tool offered to students at the University that should be taken advantage of.