NORFOLK, Va. (WAVY) — Hampton Roads Transit is helping folks get where they need to go with two opportunities for free transportation as we kick off the new school year.

First, HRT announced Wednesday that free parking and transit options will be available for NSU football games this fall.

“Our parking lots are free at Newtown Road and Military Highway station,” said Thomas Becher, HRT communications manager. “The city is making available the MacArthur garages. NSU will have shuttle buses to the stadium or people can walk a couple of blocks to the Tide Light Rail station for the trek back. We encourage people to use both stations at NSU Ballentine and the NSU station.”

According to HRT, the announcement came as a result of their successful partnership with the Norfolk Tides, which offered similar free transit options to fans.

“Building on the success we had with the Norfolk Tides baseball team, the city approached us to see if we could do the same thing for the five NSU home games this fall,” said Becher. “So, we’re working with them and the city to offer free rides to these five home games two hours before and after each game.”

The next opportunity comes in the student freedom pass, which provides riders 13 to 17 years old with unlimited rides in HRT services.

“This is a great resource to get you to and from school, extracurriculars, a job, anything like that and now is your time to come get it,” said Gus Maxwell, HRT public outreach coordinator. “We’ve had a 25% increase in students making student freedom passes and that basically comes from the communities buying in. The schools see the use, they see the value in the resource that is the student freedom pass so they want us there more.”

This includes bus, ferry and light rail transportation.

Students lined up at Hampton High School Thursday to sign up for passes, learn how to plan trips in advance and use the latest technology to navigate the transit system.

“We want to be able to put them in control of their own commute,” said Maxwell. “We can teach them about our new bus stop signs, about how to utilize our system app and then our trip planner on the website where they can put in point A and B and we can give them routes and times to be able to fill in the blanks.”

If you’d like to learn more about the NSU transit options, click here. To learn more about the student freedom pass, click here.