{"id":155,"date":"2011-06-28T13:48:04","date_gmt":"2011-06-28T21:48:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/reneesiu\/?p=155"},"modified":"2011-06-28T13:48:04","modified_gmt":"2011-06-28T21:48:04","slug":"presenting-the-new-u-pass-program","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/reneesiu\/2011\/06\/28\/presenting-the-new-u-pass-program\/","title":{"rendered":"Presenting: The New U-Pass Program!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Starting this September, UBC will be having a different U-Pass program. After looking through the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.translink.ca\/en\/Fares-and-Passes\/Student-Passes\/U-Pass\/U-Pass-FAQ.aspx\">FAQs<\/a>, here are some notable differences that I saw.<\/p>\n<p>First thing of course is the new look of the U-Pass. Sorry to break it to everyone who loves collecting U-Passes, but starting in September, it will look like this:<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.translink.ca\/~\/media\/images\/content\/fares\/student_passes\/upass\/new_upass_bc_card.ashx?w=486&amp;h=152&amp;as=1\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Personally, I don&#8217;t really like the change. I quite liked the plastic-y feel of the card. It also no longer has your picture or name on the pass so it seems like a generic bus pass, without the ads. It is stated that it can only be used by the person whose name is written on the back of the U-Pass, but I can see this being exploited. Although TransLink employees do have rights to verify your eligibility, how often would they check?<\/p>\n<p>Another notable difference is of course, the increase in price. The U-Pass currently costs $23.75\/month for UBC students. Starting in September, the price will increase to $30. Even with the increase, it is still a huge discount from the $151\/month for a 3-zone adult bus pass. The price for a replacement U-Pass has also increased from $26.50(?) to $35. I suspect that the increase in price of the replacement cards is partly to prevent the reselling of U-passes. It should also be noted that the prices will be the same across all schools participating in the program<\/p>\n<p>Which leads to the last major difference I saw. Currently, the U-Pass program is named the &#8220;Vancity U-Pass Program&#8221; and only 4 schools are participating (UBC, SFU, Langara, CapU). This will change in September when program is renamed to the &#8220;U-Pass BC Program&#8221;. As the name suggests, more schools will be eligible to participate in the U-Pass program.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m indifferent about the new U-Pass Program, but I do think I will miss having my name and picture on it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Starting this September, UBC will be having a different U-Pass program. After looking through the FAQs, here are some notable differences that I saw. First thing of course is the new look of the U-Pass. Sorry to break it to everyone who loves collecting U-Passes, but starting in September, it will look like this: Personally, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2474,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[203],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-155","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-commuting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/reneesiu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/reneesiu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/reneesiu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/reneesiu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2474"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/reneesiu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=155"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/reneesiu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":156,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/reneesiu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155\/revisions\/156"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/reneesiu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=155"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/reneesiu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=155"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/reneesiu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=155"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}