Auburn had been offering evening and late-night buses to ensure all students had the ability to safely travel from campus to their dorms or off-campus residence. The buses would pick up at a central location on campus and stop at designated locations across town, which for some students were still far away from their homes. However, fewer and fewer students took advantage of these services due to route inefficiencies, commutes from the bus stop to their homes, and long wait times.

In order to provide a better experience for students, as well as save money on transportation costs, Auburn looked to Lyft to design a new ride program. Lyft was an attractive solution for Auburn, since students were already utilizing Lyft to get to and from campus on their own. To ensure its success, Auburn required that the program could only be utilized by Auburn students, had a lower operating cost than the previous shuttle system, and was easily automated and executable by Auburn staff.

Lyft and Auburn worked together to design a transportation program that provided up to a $10 discount per ride inside designated service areas. As a result, students were able to get to and from their homes and campus easily and efficiently.

By utilizing Lyft over the traditional shuttle services, Auburn has been able to realize over $200,000 in annual savings. Auburn has received overwhelmingly positive feedback from the student community about the change from buses to Lyft rides. Lastly, working with Lyft has decreased the workload for the campus Transit team by proactively providing mobility information. Arishna Lastinger from the Auburn Parking & Transportation team says, “Lyft taking the initiative on communicating has made the partnership so much more enjoyable and easy.”

Furthermore, with Lyft’s flexibility and ability to create new programs on demand, Auburn was able to increase service hours, and offer additional pick-up and drop-off locations to make it easier for students to get around campus during midterms. They could also provide rides to and from voting locations for the 2020 Federal election. These bespoke programs would not have been possible with a traditional shuttle service.