As Western Washington University students, faculty, and staff return to campus for the start of the new academic year, they’ll have a new way to board Whatcom Transit Authority buses at certain stops serving the university. 

New “WWU Show & Go” signage has started to appear at some stops along the Blue GO Line (Routes 14, 105, 107, 108, 190, 196, and 197) — including the heavily used Bill McDonald Parkway & Rec Center stop adjacent to WWU’s C Lots where BhamByBus encountered them earlier this week — encouraging Vikings to “flash your pass” to the bus operator, eliminating the need to validate a transit pass by scanning.

BhamByBus reached out to WTA to confirm details about the WWU Show & Go zone on and near campus. It's part of an effort to speed up the bus-boarding process at some of the most heavily used stops in the WTA bus network. 

A new bus shelter sign at the Bill McDonald Parkway & Rec Center stop touts how Vikings can just flash their transit pass.
A new bus shelter sign at the Bill McDonald Parkway & Rec Center stop touts how Vikings can just flash their transit pass. (Photo by Michael Grass / BhamByBus)

To take advantage of the WWU Show & Go zone, those with a Western-affiliated transit pass using the Umo Mobility App will need to use a new code each academic quarter. Western folks should anticipate more on-campus communication around how the WWU Show & Go zone will work. 

Outside the WWU Show & Go zone, Western students, faculty, and staff with a transit pass will have to scan their pass upon boarding per normal.

While delays associated with the bus-boarding process, fare payment, and transit pass validation, may seem trivial, they can and do add up. According to a February 2017 National Association of City Transportation Officials white paper, “Better Boarding, Better Buses: Streamlining Boarding and Fares,” an examination of bus route performance on key routes in Minneapolis found that the “time it takes for a bus to stop in order to load and unload passengers — called dwell time — can constitute up to a third of bus travel time.”