D.C. Area Universities Slow to Adopt Cheap Transit Ride Program

Eve Zhurbinskiy checks in on the University Ride Pass program administered by the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority since February 2016, finding that few colleges have chosen to participate.

Though the University Ride Pass "allows college students to take unlimited rides on Metrorail and Metrobus for $1 a day at participating schools," only one school in the area, American University, has signed up for the program.

Students pay for the pass "in the form of a mandatory fee as part of their tuition and housing package at the beginning of the semester," explains Zhurbinskiy. The fee structure for the program makes financial aid available to cover the cost, which totals $130 per student, per semester.

On the one hand, students a schools like George Washington University (where Zhurbinskiy is a student) have encountered institutional hurdles to approving the pass despite support from students for the program. The article digs more into the institutional hurdles holding up approval of the program, especially at George Washington University. On the other hand, the president of the student government at Catholic University vetoed a resolution in support of the program, "after expressing concerns about cost and security liability."