In February 2024, The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro) announced last year to be their highest ridership since 2019, before COVID-19 hit, suggesting that transportation ridership is beginning to stabilize.
In Fall 2023, the U-Pass program at USC expanded, offering free access to all Metro trains and select buses. Previously, the program was only available to graduate students as a paid, opt-in service. However, starting in Fall 2023, the U-Pass became free for all students, including undergraduates. This expansion likely contributed to the increase in ridership.
David Donovan, Associate Director for USC Transportation at the Health Sciences campus, discussed U-Pass usage rates during the fall semester. He notes that while graduate students had an 87% usage rate among those who picked up their U-Pass cards, 80% of undergraduates used their cards at least once.
Robert Binder, a fifth-year urban planning and development PhD student, received the U-Pass in August of last year and found it significantly useful. He had commuted to campus on the metro in previous semesters as well, but had paid for it.
“Having the U-Pass is pretty great because I don’t have to worry about paying for transit,” Binder said. “I don’t have that extra stress of needing to pay for transportation.”
This year, Binder comes to campus four times a week, a frequency he said would be less without the U-Pass.
Lyr Colin, a fifth-year PhD comparative literature student, has used the U-Pass since arriving at USC as an exchange student six years ago, only stopping for a few semesters between 2020 and 2022.
“I come from Paris, where the Metro is the main way of moving around,” Colin said. He elaborated on how he found out about the U-Pass right away. “My program… [was] really helpful in pointing me in the right direction for this.”
Eddie Soule, USC Transportation’s rideshare coordinator, aims to reduce single occupancy vehicles at USC, with the U-Pass program aligning with this goal.
“The main benefit of the program is that students have a very reliable way to get around. It connects them to all sorts of things that they want to do from visiting family to exploring LA to going to internships,” Soule said. “Someone can pick up a U pass today, activate their card, and automatically, their mobility increases exponentially.”
Despite being available to undergraduates, many still don’t utilize the U-Pass.
Lohit Nambiar is a freshman computational neuroscience major and USC Transportation student worker. He believes that sustainable transportation is important, but suggested that people should be able to opt out of the transportation fee for the U-Pass.
“For example, if you have a car, you’re probably not going to use the U-Pass. So why would you have to pay like the extra money for the U pass, if you’re not going to get any use out of it in the first place?” Nambiar said. “If students knew about the U-Pass and being able to take public transportation [for free], I feel like more students would be open to doing that.”
The L.A. Metro system has had a negative reputation in the past, with passengers feeling unsafe due to attacks being one of the reasons. But last year, that reputation started to see a positive shift. German journalists praised the metro in an editorial posted in the Los Angeles Times.
Binder, whose field is public transit, is optimistic about the future of the LA Metro and the U-Pass, advocating for further expansion of the rail system to enhance livability in LA.
“The bus system is great, but the rail system, we need to expand that more for sure,” Binder elaborated on the planned expansions to specific rail lines. “I want USC and the other universities in the region to keep supporting [people] riding transit… In order for LA to become a more livable place, we need to keep investing in it.”
Donovan believes that the U-Pass is too popular a program to go away now that has been fully expanded to all students.
“It’s too popular, too many students are using it, and we’re putting too many resources into publicizing it and to making sure people know about it,” Donovan said.