GetDowntown go!pass offers great benefits and more features for downtown workers
Jan Culbertson of A3C Architects shows off her go!pass.
“It has been a positive for our business downtown in helping our employees get to work. In fact, we have had to get more than what we began with in the past,” notes John Verburg, a manager at Café Habana on Washington Street in downtown Ann Arbor.
For those who don’t know about the go!pass, it’s a transit pass that employers purchase for their employees at just $5 annually per full-time employee. The cost is kept low through a generous grant from the Ann Arbor Downtown Development Authority. In addition to allowing employees to have unlimited rides on all of TheRide’s fixed route buses, the go!pass offers discounts on TheRide’s A2Express Commuter Bus Service, Night Ride, and tons of discounts to downtown stores. The go!pass program has been in existence since 1999. More information about the go!pass is available at www.getdowntown.org/bus/gopass.
This year, the getDowntown program is introducing the swipeable go!pass. “The DDA has been a committed supporter of the go!pass program as a partner in the getDowntown program for more than a decade,” said Ann Arbor DDA Director Susan Pollay. “The new swipeable go!pass will provide the getDowntown partners, including DDA, TheRide, and the City, with valuable information so that we can continue to work together to create more and better transit and transportation services in the future.”
Interest in the go!pass program continues to increase. As of August 2010, 482 business participate in the go!pass program with a total of 6,671 passes distributed to downtown employees, compared to 437 companies and 6,184 passes for the 2009 go!pass season. From January-July of 2010, ridership of employees using a go!pass increased by 12 percent as compared to January-July of 2009. Ridership for 2010 is the highest it has been since 2001.
The go!pass has also become one of the first items purchased by new businesses when they open in downtown Ann Arbor. New businesses such as This & That, Perpetua Boutique Organique and the Blackbird Theater purchased go!passes from getDowntown within a month of opening their doors.
Nancy Shore is the program director for getDowntown.The getDowntown program encourages and assists downtown commuters in the use and development of sustainable commuting choices. The program is a partnership between TheRide, the Ann Arbor Downtown Development Authority, and the City of the Ann Arbor.