The Best Ways to Get Around Los Angeles & Beyond from USC

By: Karla Leung ‘22

USC is in the heart of Los Angeles, making it extremely convenient to get around and explore the LA area. However, getting around can get pretty pricey. Knowing all your options, whether you want to road trip to San Francisco or just go shopping at The Grove, can help you save time and money. 

Rental Cars

Rental cars are a great option if you’re thinking of traveling longer distances. Around campus you can find ZipCar, Maven, and Enterprise, which can provide you with a rental car by the hour or by the day. Maven will cost you about $8 to $9 an hour with a free gas card, making them perfect if you’re traveling a long distance for the day. ZipCar cost approximately $9 an hour as well, and 180 miles are included per day. For both ZipCar and Maven, a full day rental will cost approximately $80. Enterprise is also conveniently located outside of the McCarthy Parking Structure, but you must be over 21 years old to rent a car, as per Enterprise’s new policy.

Best for: road trips, traveling a long distance for a day

Rideshare

Ridesharing is probably the most popular method of transportation as a student, especially if you and your friends don’t have cars, but it can definitely get pricey. Make sure to take full advantage of USC’s “Fryft” program, where you can get free rides within a mile radius of campus from 7pm to 2am. If you haven’t signed up for it already, check it out by clicking “Fryft”! You can also save money by referring friends to get credit. Uber has a rewards program, but you’ll have to ride a lot to get any rewards out of it – you can find more information here. 

Best for: if you’re going to multiple places within the same trip, aren’t too worried about cost, or are traveling a relatively close distance.

Scooters

Sometimes, if you’re not feeling like getting into a Lyft, a Lime, Bird, or Lyft scooter can be a fun option! They all cost about $1.00 to unlock and $0.15 per minute; all you need is to download the app and load your account with money. Taking a scooter downtown will only take you about 30 minutes, which can be a fun adventure and will only cost you around $5. Or grab one if you’re too lazy to walk down Fig for some food!

Best for: having fun with friends; a quick adventure!

Amtrak

Amtrak is also great if you’re looking to travel to a different city in California or even state! Amtrak has trains that travel up and down the west coast; a trip from Los Angeles to Seattle Washington is 33 hours! Although a lot slower than by plane (and even slower than a bus), it can be an adventure to ride the train and visit the stops on the way. On long trips, they provide sleeping accommodations and meals onboard, and snacks for shorter trips. They also provide a 15% student discount on select routes in California. Plus, the views tend to be beautiful!

Buses

If you’re looking to traveling to different cities - and even states - taking a Greyhound or Megabus might be an option to look into! They actually tend to be faster and cheaper than Amtrak, so look into it! They have stations all across the west coast and even the United States. Greyhound offers 10% off rides through StudentAdvantage and Megabus offers $3 off any trip through UniDays.

The Metro

The Metro, Los Angeles’ rail system, is an often overlooked but extremely cheap and convenient way to get around. To use the Metro, you have to purchase a Tap Card and reload the card at the station, which only costs $2 and each ride $1.75. However, you can even get an all-day unlimited use, which costs $7, or a seven-day pass, which is $25.

If you’re a graduate student, you can purchase a U-Pass which gives you a discount on Metro passes for the semester. 

The station is conveniently located along Exposition Blvd, and with a tap of your card, you can hop on the Metro and head all the way to Santa Monica and anywhere along the way of the blue line. What I like to do is to take the Metro towards somewhere I’m going and then take a Lyft or Uber the rest of the way, which saves a significant amount of money.

Best for: going somewhere pretty far, not in a hurry

City Buses

Additionally, buses through Los Angeles’ transit system are a great way to get around the city as well. Called the Metro Local, Metro Rapid, Metro Express, and the Metro Silver Line. Using the Metro Trip Planner makes it easy to see which buses and Metro rails you should take for your entire trip. The cost is the same for both the Metro rail and the buses, $1.75 per ride!

Best for: using with the Metro rail, traveling shorter distances

Plane

If you’re not from the west coast, your time at USC can be perfect for traveling! Traveling by plane is obviously the fastest, but it can get pricey fast. You can check out an app such as Hopper, which helps you find cheaper plane tickets based on predicting prices. However, there are many websites that provide student discounts for flights, such as STATravel and StudentUniverse.  Other options that are not student exclusive are Expedia and Travelocity. 

Best for: traveling to different states, LONG distances

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