The current Lyft Ride Smart Program will be replaced by Via as the point-to-point transportation service on campus, Dean of Students Michele Rasmussen and Associate Vice President of Safety and Security Eric Heath announced in an email to students on June 18. The change will take effect on September 1, ahead of the 2024–25 academic year.
The existing Lyft program, which was scaled back for the 2023–24 academic year, offers students seven rides per month—each subsidized up to $10. The new Via program will provide students with unlimited free rides in shared vans. Through the co-branded UChicago/Via mobile application, students will be able to request a shared van anywhere within the off-campus service area and from “defined ‘virtual spots’ on campus,” which will be set in front of academic, residential, dining, and student activity buildings. Via will maintain the same service area and operating hours (5 p.m.–4 a.m.) as the existing Lyft program.
Previously, the University had expressed that “if [Via] couldn’t find you a ride within [15] minutes, they would reroute you to a Lyft that [the University] would pay for.” However, the June 18 email did not mention this arrangement.
Members of the Undergraduate Student Government (USG) had been advocating for this complementary policy throughout the past academic year. USG President Elijah Jenkins ’26 noted that USG is “coordinating meetings over the summer with the UChicago Department of Safety & Security and Via to discuss the free Lyft option and other concerns we have received and monitored on Sidechat.”
A University spokesperson clarified that the University “will provide additional program details before the program begins on September 1, including how Via will coordinate with Lyft as a complement to their service.”
Via, a New York-based software company, will provide the University with the digital infrastructure for managing the new rideshare service. The company has several existing collaborations with other universities, including Northwestern, NYU, and Harvard. Students from these institutions have generally praised Via for its user-friendly interface, but they also pointed out issues with the service’s punctuality. Dani Karr, a Northwestern undergraduate, previously told the Maroon that “the vehicles often take 30–45 minutes to arrive.”
The new UChicago/Via app will also display nearby transportation, such as UGo Shuttles, for a comprehensive view of all available transportation options on campus.
The announcement follows a year of discussions within the administration about pursuing alternatives to the Lyft arrangement. The Lyft Ride Smart Program, which was first launched in September 2021 and formerly offered students 10 rides each month subsidized up to $15 per ride, was curtailed for the 2023–24 academic year after reductions for July and August 2023.
In an October 2023 safety webinar, University officials floated further cuts to the Lyft program. During the webinar, Rasmussen said the program was not in place as a response to crime. The University has, however, used expansions to the Lyft program as a response to crime in the past. After a wave of violent crime in the fall of 2021, including the murder of graduate student Shaoxiong “Dennis” Zheng, the Lyft program—which was initially in place only on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights—was extended to every night. The expansion, although initially promoted as temporary, was later made permanent.
When asked about the Lyft reductions last Fall, University President Paul Alivisatos told the Maroon that “there was some reasonable data that showed that there were a number of Lyft rides that were being used, essentially, in times and places that were substitutional to the shuttle services.”
Alivisatos added, “And so that’s an example of having a harm to the public good because the shuttles are important, because they provide a way that’s appropriate for getting people around that doesn’t use [individual cars] and it doesn’t clog the street.”
In an interview with the Maroon in February, Heath said that the University believes that the new Via program will “[increase] access to nighttime point-to-point transportation,” while reducing the high costs associated with the Lyft program, alongside other safety and environmental concerns. In an October statement to the Maroon, the Environmental Justice Task Force criticized the University for citing environmental concerns regarding the Lyft program, which has not been the subject of any organized calls for emissions reductions, while not taking action on initiatives students have advocated for.
Additional information about Via, including instructions on installing the mobile applications, will be released to students later in the summer.
