The Long Beach City College “Strong Beach” Bus Pass program is available to students again, making it free for them to commute between the LAC and PCC campus this Spring semester.
The bus pass is provided by Long Beach Transit in coordination with LBCC.
Mike Gold, vice president of customer relations and communications at LBT talked about the goal of the bus pass program.
“The goal is to provide transportation access for students to get from and back to school. The transportation barrier for people is the difference between a student getting a great education or not,” Gold said.
In order to be eligible for the bus pass, students must be full-time, have good academic standing, and must be apart of the College Promise or Viking Advantage.
Those eligible for the pass receive an email notifying them of their eligibility status and can then pick up their pass from the Cashier’s Office in Building A, room 1081 at LAC-campus or room 101 at PCC-campus.
Since the program is limited to full-time students with enrollment of 12 units or more, those who do not meet these requirements will have until March 4, 2020 to meet requirements before their TAP sticker is deactivated.
For students who are not eligible, LBT states that other options for transportation include a Transit Access Pass (TAP), for a discounted price of $40 for 30 days.
In this instance, students can save $25 a month, as opposed to a regular monthly fare of $65.
Some students remain devoted to riding with Long Beach Transit, whether they hold a pass or not, like LBCC student Emmanuel Lawrence.
“My main reason for taking the bus is it’s convenient and cheap,” Lawrence said.
“You meet new people on the bus everyday and the convenience when only taking one bus makes the wait bearable and worthwhile.”
Third year LBCC student Jewel Johnson regularly rides with LBT as her main form of transportation and has used LBT to commute prior to enrolling in LBCC as a student.
“I take it for everything,” Johnson said.
Johnson talked about her awareness of the environmental impact that LBT creates with its services.
“The LBT is a convenient way to save money and not worry about cars, bills and gas,” she said.
The Long Beach Transit pass is available to students as LBCC continues to fund the program.