{"id":291220,"date":"2026-04-29T09:29:17","date_gmt":"2026-04-29T09:29:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/291220\/"},"modified":"2026-04-29T09:29:17","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T09:29:17","slug":"why-la-college-students-are-ditching-30-ubers-for-the-metro","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/291220\/","title":{"rendered":"Why LA college students are ditching $30 Ubers for the Metro"},"content":{"rendered":"

This story<\/a> first appeared on The LA Local<\/a>.<\/p>\n

On most weekday afternoons at the Expo Park\/USC Metro station outside the University of Southern California, the platform feels like an extension of campus life. People are usually bunched up in pairs or groups. Many wear USC crewneck sweatshirts and talk about campus life as they straddle the edges between downtown Los Angeles and the classroom. What they aren\u2019t talking about are their cars or debating the pros and cons of taking an Uber versus a Waymo.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cUbering is expensive every time I\u2019m going somewhere, it\u2019s at least gonna be $30,\u201d Jaiden Torres told The LA Local. Torres is a third-year student at Hofstra University doing a semester in Los Angeles.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He said a car is the last thing on his mind as he navigates the city. \u201cThat\u2019s money that I could be spending on other things. So I try to opt out to take the train.\u201d<\/p>\n

Keep up with LAist.<\/p>\n

If you’re enjoying this article, you’ll love our daily newsletter, The LA Report. Each weekday, catch up on the 5 most pressing stories to start your morning in 3 minutes or less. <\/p>\n

For many young Angelenos, the Los Angeles Metro isn\u2019t a last resort. It\u2019s how they move through the city. They\u2019re embracing transit even as the system evolves and works to rebuild ridership and public trust.<\/p>\n

More than 500,000 students<\/a>, including community college students, across L.A. County now ride Metro through its GoPass program, with nearly 60 million student boardings since 2021. Metro says its overall ridership has also continued to recover since the pandemic, reaching more than 82% of pre-pandemic levels in January 2025 and extending a run of more than two years of growth.<\/p>\n

In a statement, Metro attributed that increase in ridership to improvements in service, safety and a return of public confidence <\/a>in the system.\u00a0<\/p>\n

For Josh Figueroa, a first-year urban planning major at the USC, transit is both a classroom topic and a daily necessity. Originally from Riverside, he moved to L.A. this year without a car and now relies on Metro to get around.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn terms of getting where I need to go, the Metro is very reliable,\u201d he told The LA Local. \u201cAnd, because I\u2019m a student, it\u2019s free.\u201d<\/p>\n

And it\u2019s not just USC students. Since 2016, Metro has offered a U-Pass partnership that allows students to get unlimited or discounted rides with their TAP cards. The program went from one major university in 2017 to nearly two dozen schools<\/a> in 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Jacob Wasserman is a research program manager at UCLA\u2019s Institute of Transportation Studies. He told The LA Local that by offering passes, schools are helping create a culture of students using the Metro.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAt UCLA, every undergrad and grad student gets a pass. It makes the transit agency money because [schools] buy it for everybody, and the people who do use it get a ton of value. It\u2019s effectively free,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

For students juggling tuition, rent and groceries, the savings matter.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m definitely more inclined to take the Metro than an Uber because of finances,\u201d Figueroa said. \u201cIt\u2019s way cheaper to take the Metro.\u201d<\/p>\n

Figueroa also feels more a part of L.A. when riding. \u201cI feel more in connection with a community or in connection with a city when I\u2019m taking the resources and the transportation that they provide,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But there are drawbacks.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"People<\/p>\n

On most weekday afternoons at the Expo Park\/USC Metro station outside the University of Southern California, the platform feels like an extension of campus life. People are usually bunched up in pairs or groups. Many wear USC crewneck sweatshirts and talk about campus life as they straddle the edges between downtown Los Angeles and the classroom. What they aren\u2019t talking about are their cars or debating the pros and cons of taking an Uber versus a Waymo.<\/p>\n

Trains vs cars<\/p>\n

L.A.\u2019s landscape is built around cars and freeways, with many Metro stops located in inconvenient places. \u201cIt\u2019s hard to fit a transit system into land use that\u2019s built around the car, because you may have to walk that last mile, and if there isn\u2019t just much around, it can be unsafe,\u201d Wasserman said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Figueroa has personally experienced this. \u201cA lot of places I want to go, like a food spot somewhere, I\u2019d need to drive because the Metro stops are in inconvenient places. If I get off at a Metro stop, I might have to walk 30 minutes to an hour,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But that may change. New Metro expansions are working to connect the city more efficiently.<\/p>\n

Metro\u2019s \u201c28 by 28\u201d initiative<\/a> aims to complete 28 major public rail transportation projects before the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games, including rail extensions, new light-rail segments and rapid bus transit lines.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Nine projects have been completed so far, including the A Line (formerly the Gold Line) Foothill Extension to Pomona. \u201c[The A Line] is great for connecting college students out there,\u201d Wasserman said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He added that these projects are meant to serve everyday riders. \u201cThe difference that we\u2019re seeing for the 28 Olympics is that a lot of these projects, even the bus projects, are designed to be Olympic supporting, but also legacy projects beyond that,\u201d Wasserman said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Wasserman hopes Metro\u2019s expansion will help keep Angelenos connected across the city and is optimistic about its future.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re really ambitiously expanding our rail system,\u201d he said. \u201cIf it can work in L.A., it can work anywhere in the U.S.\u201d<\/p>\n

But another major issue affecting ridership is around safety.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Commuter safety concerns<\/p>\n

Figueroa noted that Metro stations with the fewest riders feel less safe.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn urban places that don\u2019t have a lot of people, there\u2019s this idea of having less eyes on the street. When you have less eyes and less people watching, people tend to feel unsafe because they feel alone. It\u2019s very prevalent on the Metro,\u201d Figueroa said.<\/p>\n

Torres noted the difference between the buses and trains in L.A.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel a lot safer on the train than on the bus. On trains, if it feels unsafe, I can move to the next car. But on the bus you\u2019re kind of stuck,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Transit agencies are paying attention to these concerns. Wasserman conducted a research project into the L.A. Metro Transit Ambassador Pilot Program<\/a>, which provides a visible, customer-focused presence at stations and on vehicles.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the ambassador program is working well. They\u2019re just like extra eyes, so you\u2019re not in an empty station,\u201d Wasserman said. \u201cThey are also doing more serious stuff. They carry Narcan and address overdoses.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Figueroa has noticed the changes. \u201cI definitely feel safer. I don\u2019t feel like I\u2019m in danger or threatened,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The UCLA report concluded<\/a> that Metro was \u201cwise to consider, pilot, and now make permanent\u201d the ambassador program.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The continuous improvements are also shaping how young people view the city itself. \u201cI feel like [by taking the train] I\u2019m getting to observe the working class or day-to-day people of L.A.,\u201d Torres said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This story first appeared on The LA Local. On most weekday afternoons at the Expo Park\/USC Metro station…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":291221,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[14724,124244,124245,48,52,9087,51,124243,47,50,49,4182,15639],"class_list":["post-291220","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-college-students","tag-cost-of-transportation","tag-free-passes","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-metro","tag-la-news","tag-la-trains","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-metro","tag-trains"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291220","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=291220"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291220\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/291221"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=291220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=291220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=291220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}