In recent years, N.C . State’s transportation department has partnered with Capital Area Transit and Triangle Transit to provide students with GoPasses , allowing them to travel around the Triangle without a car.
The 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, replacing it costs five dollars. Students are only allowed two replacements per year.
Many students find GoPasses useful, helping them get to Crabtree 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 during 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 and schedules of her peers.
Typically, students who don’t use GoPasses have found other ways of traveling.
“I have my own car on campus,” Jessica Caudle, freshmen in English education, said. “It seems easier to just drive places than to wait for a bus to get here and then take their round-a-bout 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.
Hoping to help her friends avoid the confusion of the bus routes, Caudle states 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, which Thomas claims is, for the most part, easy to navigate and a 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 they are not personally utilizing.
“Maybe they could make [the fee] optional,” Caudle said. “Or substitute paying for the GoPasses by paying for a parking permit.”
However, not everyone shares Caudle’s 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 haveGoPasses.”
Most students, like Thomas and Richards, believe the GoPasses are useful tools offered to students at the University and provide an advantageous opportunity.
