UTA’s New Add Campaign has U Students Tapping

UTA’s New Add Campaign has U Students Tapping by Meish Roundy


 Utah Transit Authority’s TRAX and the University of Utah have encouraged students to tap on and tap off on card readers located at train platforms since its creation in 2009. 

University TRAX stations have signs reading "Tap it or Ticket" with a warning that the penalty could be a $150 ticket.  UTA showed they were serious about this campaign when TRAX officers began carrying devices that registered if student’s tapped onto the TRAX with a UCard or not.

 Jesse Sheets, a student at the U, claimed that before the signs he never tapped on, “Last year you did not have to tap on or tap off.  If you had your UCard they had no way of knowing if you had tapped on or not.”  Camille Larson, another student at the U, claimed, “I didn’t use to (tap on or tap off) but they are really strict about it now.  I don’t want to pay $150 if I get caught."

The University provides students with UCards allowing students to ride free if they tap on and off.  Knowing how many students ride the TRAX is important because, according to the University’s transportation web page, “UTA bases its fee to the U for the UCard service on ridership.  The U needs to have an accurate count of how many of its students, faculty, and staff are using the UTA system.”

 UTA and the U of U have tried many ways to implement and encourage students to tap on and tap off.  In 2009 students who did not tap on and tap off were threatened to have their UCards deactivated.

 In the fall of 2012, the University placed the names of students and faculty in an I-Pad 2 drawing if they had tapped on and off the TRAX over ten times a month. Ultimately UTA’s new “Tap it or Ticket” add campaign seemed to be most successful in getting students to tap on and off.