OmniRide to urge more students to ride bus to school, internship sites

OmniRide hopes more students in Prince William County and Manassas take the bus.

The region’s transit provider and the Prince William Chamber of Commerce partnered to launch a new initiative is to provide transportation resources for high school students, and students at campuses of Northern Virginia Community College, in Manassas and Woodbridge.

OmniRide Local Buses already serve stops at eight of the region’s high schools in the county and the cities of Manassas and Manassas Park. The partnership will work to highlight local bus services in these areas.

Organizer Holly Morello, OmniRide’s transportation demand management coordinator, says the bus is a perfect way for students to get to the site of an internship outside the school building.

Several schools have career and technical education programs that may require students to travel to a workplace.

“We already have buses going by many of these schools, but unless you’re already using them, you don’t even see them,” said Morello, who works to match commuters with carpools and vanpools.

The program is modeled after the old OmniRide’s Teen Summer Bus Pass and an older bus pass for Northern Virginia Community College Students before the pandemic.

In the old days, students had to present their passes for free rides on the bus. Since last year, rides on all OmniRide buses have been free.

Morello says, because of that fact, tracking increased student use of OmniRide buses during this new initiative will be challenging.

In the coming months, OmniRide plans to visit schools to discuss how students can better use OmniRide to get where they’re going.

“Getting into the classroom and talking about this program is going to be key,” said Morello.

OmniRide Local buses serve stops in Manassas, Manassas Park, and Prince William County neighborhoods.