Los Angeles is notorious for traffic, especially en route to the airport. Taxis and other mobility services overcharge during the rush hour. Well, the good news for USC students is that they can now book a free ride to Los Angeles International Airport for fall recess.
A pilot program funded by the Undergraduate Student Government, SCÜP, aims to provide safely and environmentally-friendly transportation services to every student to the airport. In response to the Green Week initiative on campus, senior civil engineering student and the founder of SCÜP, Carlo Di Bernardo, describes how he started this program.
Carlo Di Bernardo: When we talk about sustainability, it’s in the simplest way moving people with less vehicles possible.
Every single academic year, over seventy thousand pounds of carbon dioxide are emitted when students travel from USC to LAX round trip. That is equivalent to cutting down every tree on campus.
With seventeen service days for starting the program, Di Bernardo projects a long-term solution for student transportation during every academic break.
Carlo Di Bernardo: By the end of the pilot, which is this academic year, we will have a framework to run this service every single year going forward in the best and most sustainable way possible.
The President of the Undergraduate Student Government, Hannah Woodworth, believes higher riderships with SCÜP service can benefit the greater student body.
Hannah Woodworth: The students have been signing up rapidly. We have the capacity for about 1500 students for this first fall break program, but we plan to expand that for winter break as more students will be traveling. Our goal is to eliminate that barrier to entry for students to travel during breaks. All students should have an equal opportunity to be able to go home, explore, and the costs of a fair to the airport should not be a big factor.
To reserve a spot in the shuttle, students can sign up through SCÜP’s Instagram account at scup.usc. The service will be operating every hour next Wednesday and Thursday.