Students at every community college across Orange County can now hop on any county bus route, as many times as they need, for free or at a minimal one-time cost.

With a recent agreement signed by Orange Coast College to enroll in the Orange County Transportation Authority’s student bus pass, all nine community colleges in OC now offer the deal to their students.

The program was first launched at Santa Ana College in 2017, and every other school has since signed on.

Orange Coast College will start allowing students to use the pass on Aug. 29, when its semester begins, OCTA spokesman Eric Carpenter said.

The pass allows any student enrolled in a participating community college to ride any fixed OC Bus route by using the bus app or a physical pass.

Funded partially through California’s Low Carbon Transit Operations Program (that aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions) and partially by the colleges, each agreement a school has to pay for the rides “is a little different,” Carpenter said in an email.

The school’s portion comes “either through their own funding or in some cases a minimal student fee as part of their registration,” he said. “In all cases, once students get the pass, there is no cost to ride the bus on any OC Bus regular route.”

The program aims to relieve gas and parking costs for students while “contributing to a cleaner, healthier environment,” OCTA officials said in a news release.

Steve Tamanaha, dean of students at Orange Coast College, said the free pass for OCC students “is part of Orange Coast College’s response to supporting the basic needs of our students.”

“One barrier for many students is transportation not just to campus but also to work, grocery shopping, and entertainment,” he said.

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