Uber awarded $200,000 to Temple University to provide free rides for students in order to promote safety on the college campus.
The program aims to help students leave unsafe situations by offering up to four $20 free ride vouchers covering a nine-and-a-half-mile radius around Temple’s main campus for the rest of 2023. Uber has coordinated with Temple student organization Student Activists Against Sexual Assault, which is a chapter of the nonprofit It’s On Us.
“By lowering the economic barrier to entry into using Uber to get home safe at night, we’re really hoping that we’re able to help our Temple students feel safe moving in and around their campus community,” executive director of IOU Tracey Vitchers said to The Temple News.
By using their Temple email, students can log on to their Uber account and redeem their vouchers using the code “TempleRideHome.” Free rides are based on an honor code system, where vouchers should only be redeemed by students who are in a risky situation that warrants its use, according to founder and president of SAASA Ray Epstein.
The program also highlights three Uber safety features: PIN verification, the emergency assistance button, and the “Share Your Trip” function, The Temple News reported.
PIN verification is necessary for the ride to begin, and the emergency assistance button on the Uber app immediately connects the user with an emergency dispatch. The “Share Your Trip” feature allows the Uber user to choose five people with whom they can share their trip status and location.
Uber and IOU conducted a similar program last year with Kutztown University of Pennsylvania, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer. Uber and IOU hope to introduce this program to other campuses nationwide, said Uber’s head of global social impact Julia Paige in a statement to the Inquirer.
Penn students are able to put their cellphone numbers in the UPennAlert system and utilize the Penn Guardian app. Penn Police will be able to view students’ locations if they call a Public Safety phone number through the app in case of an emergency.
“[The program] could really drastically decrease the amount of sexual violence happening on our campus, to have that option and not be worried about the financial vulnerabilities of it,” Epstein said to The Temple News.
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