Pace’s Student Government Association (SGA) is working on initiatives to ensure that students can travel safely.

The first measure taken by SGA is incorporating the safe ride service, Lyft, with Pace.

This measure was spearheaded by SGA’s Vice President of Administration, Julian Alston, who sought to solve the transportation issues on campus. Alston reached out to both Uber and Lyft, however, only Lyft wanted to work with Pace.

“It was something I was working on since late June or early July of 2016,” Alston said. “I was thinking of how I could leave my mark; how could I leave my campus a little better. Because that’s my position [As SGA’s Vice President of Administration] and I do care about my school.”

Currently, there is a contract pending for Pace’s partnership with Lyft, which will give students and faculty discounts to use the service.

While Lyft has collaborated with other colleges, Pace was the only school to reach out to Lyft first.

“They already have this program implemented in some schools in the nation, but Pace was the first school to seek out to them. They go to schools and asked if they want to try their program out, and Pace was the first one to reach out to them, and they liked that,” Alston said.

Alston wants to make certain areas like Pleasantville, Thornwood, and White Plains Lyft “hotspots” so there are more drivers available in those areas.

Lyft will also provide transportation for students who go out past shuttle hours or don’t have a car.

“The bus is great, but it can only take you so far and it only works at certain times, so if you miss the bus your kind of screwed,” Alston said.

SGA is looking to give students an incentive to use Lyft by potentially reducing its cost through utilizing the Student Activity Fee or Pleasantville fund. However, they cannot make that decision themselves without having a student first propose legislation in SGA.

Alston plans to have Lyft fully integrated with Pace by November. Lyft is now considered an official vendor of Pace, the last step is having the Legal Affairs and Risk Department Team sign a contract to approve the collaboration.

Once Lyft has been integrated Alston wants to look at ways to add Lyft to the MyPace smartphone application.

SGA also wants to create safer pathways in Pleasantville by working with Pace’s Government and Community Relations in town because often times students get tickets for jaywalking due to the lack of sidewalks.

“I know that some students that go out will walk back, and on Route 117 [in Pleasantville] sidewalks cross that road multiple times, personally I think it’s a poor design because it makes you cross a major road multiple times, which is unnecessary,” Farrell said.

SGA is trying to solve this because citizens of Pleasantville have had issues with students walking home at night because some have been trespassing and creating noise according to the Director of Pace’s Government and Community Relations, Bill Colona.

“When students go out, some might walk back and end up in people’s yards or are being loud, and that doesn’t really go over well with the local townspeople,” Farrell said.

Finally, SGA is also considering trying to get transpiration to run a later shuttle bus.