It’s a Friday afternoon. Under a clear, blue sky six people wait for the next Metro train at the Expo Park/USC station. Some stand, some sit and one student with a bright red backpack practices his kickflips.
One of those people is Desirae Ridley, a sophomore Business Administration student waiting to go home. She scans in [scan sound] with her U-Pass card, which she uses to go to and from campus.
Desirae Ridley: I heard about it originally from my roommate, and I was like, oh, yeah, we’re getting that so we can go as many places as we can.
U-Pass, short for Universal College Student Transit Pass, allows students like Ridley to take unlimited rides on LA Metro and buses. Last semester, they became available to all USC students for the first time, under the $93 transportation fee every student pays. That fee funds USC’s Lyft Rides program, commonly known as Fryft, campus shuttles and this newly expanded U-Pass program.