Local transit authorities in conjunction with Transportation have implemented changes that affect the way students and employees ride their bus lines.
The GoPass program, formerly known as U-Pass, allows students and employees of the University to ride buses in the Capital Area Transit and Triangle Transit systems without paying fare. Previously, under U-Pass, a rider would show his NCSU ID card to the bus operator.
However, with GoPass, this is no longer the case. As of Aug. 26, students and employees must swipe a separate GoPass permit to use these bus systems.
“[The GoPass] swipe card is the industry standard,” Christine Klein, information and communications specialist with Transportation, said. “It’s convenient. It just makes sense.”
The new system allows Transportation and the bus authorities to track the flow of bus riders from the University and ensure rider association with the University.
“We have no idea what the demographic is,” Klein said. “We’d get the bills and the reports, but nothing concrete.”
John Tallmadge, director of commuter resources for Triangle Transit, said verifying commuter status was one of the key reasons for the switch.
“The number of people we had boarding buses that weren’t [current students or employees] was approximately one-third of all NCSU traffic,” Tallmadge said. “GoPass reduces the possibility of this happening.”
Brian O’Sullivan, assistant director of planning and operations for Transportation, said GoPass holders will have to request new passes on a yearly basis because riders were taking advantage of the old system.
“We do not ever anticipate people getting their passes online,” O’Sullivan said. “We need to do the transaction in such a way that the pass is matched with an active student or employee.”
Klein said she understands the inconvenience of issuing passes in person but supports the change.
“Next year we hope to have a better, more proactive process,” Klein said. “It does require a bit of effort from students and employees to come pick up the passes from the [Transportation] office, but [the passes are] free.”
The implementation of GoPass provides the bus administrations with more housekeeping tools, but for bus riders, the service remains mostly the same.
“[The system change] was fine,” Forrest Stagner, a senior in political science, said. “I’m a senior, so I’ve had my student ID a while, and the bus drivers occasionally question my picture. Now, there’s no question about your ID, you just slide your card into the slot.”
Tallmadge said students shouldn’t worry about the overall changes.
“The goal is to streamline services and the way people can use these services,” Tallmadge said. “GoPass and U-Pass are just two different approaches to the same thing.”
