UC Davis without a car: the new-student guide

Fall quarter 2026 begins Monday, September 21, and instruction begins Wednesday, September 23 (UC Davis Registrar). Aggie Orientation runs September 16–17 for transfer students and September 18–19 for first-years (New Student Programs), and Fall Welcome events begin late September and continue through October (Student Affairs).

If you are arriving without a car, you picked the right town: Davis is one of the easiest places in California to live car-free. But a handful of trips each year fall outside what the buses and trains do — worth knowing which, before you need them.

Unitrans, and the thing everyone gets wrong

The first thing someone will tell you is "the bus is free with your ID." That is close enough to be useful and wrong enough to get you stuck.

Here is what Unitrans actually publishes. A current UC Davis undergraduate AggieCard gets you unlimited access — show it to the driver, that is the whole transaction. No photocopies, no screenshots; drivers cannot check them. Everyone else, grad students included, pays $1.50 in cash, exact change, or buys a pass: $9.50 for ten rides, $38 a month, $97 a quarter, $270 a year, sold at the Campus Store in the MU and the Downtown Store (Unitrans).

Unitrans is blunt about why: riders "directly support over 60% of Unitrans daily service" (Unitrans policy). Same page lists the days it genuinely runs free for everybody — up to 15 declared Spare the Air or Excessive Heat days a year, plus finals week each quarter.

The bonus nobody mentions: that same undergraduate AggieCard is also good for unlimited rides on Yolobus, Express routes included (Yolobus). One card, two systems.

Bikes are the actual Davis default

You will get a bike. Everyone gets a bike. The ASUCD Bike Barn is a full-service shop in the middle of campus at 400 Hutchison Drive, open 10am–5pm Monday through Friday, doing repairs, parts and rentals — and a free diagnostic if you just want to know what the noise is (Bike Barn).

Three campus rules that catch first-years, all from Rules of the Road:

1. Every bike on campus must carry a current University bicycle license (UCDT&P 6.01).
2. Sidewalk riding is prohibited everywhere on campus except the west side of A Street between Russell and Shields.
3. Park only in designated bike parking, locked to a rack.

At night you need a white front light plus rear and side reflectors — state law, not campus preference. Citations for bicyclists in Yolo County "are $200 and up."

The train is a ten-minute walk from campus

Davis station sits at 840 2nd Street: about half a mile and ten minutes on foot from UC Davis, two minutes from downtown, staffed daily 6am–4pm with an agent and two ticket kiosks (Capitol Corridor).

Capitol Corridor runs 18 stations between San Jose and Placer County, plus bus connections into San Francisco (stations). Berkeley, Oakland and Emeryville are a direct ride.

Three things people underrate:

• Unitrans and Yolobus both accept Capitol Corridor transit transfers, so the last mile is handled.
• Davis has 199 bike rack spaces and 36 BikeLink eLockers, and bikes are welcome on board.
• The Coast Starlight and California Zephyr stop here too.

The station lot is free with a validated permit from the agent — and it "fills up around 6am."

Yolobus for the county, downtown, and SMF

Route 42B is an intercity loop — Woodland, Davis, West Sacramento, Downtown Sacramento, Sacramento International Airport, back to Woodland — running hourly, seven days a week, stopping at both airport terminals (Route 42B). 42A is the same loop the other direction.

That is the answer to "how do I get to SMF" — and the undergraduate AggieCard covers it.

Where none of this reaches

Four gaps, and they are gaps in the hours and the map, not failures of the agencies:

• SFO and OAK. Yolobus covers SMF. For the Bay Area airports it is BART to Richmond, then Amtrak to Davis — two transfers, with your luggage.
• Bay Area weekends where the destination isn't a station. The train is excellent at getting you to Berkeley. It does nothing for a friend's place in Fremont.
• Tahoe and trailheads. No line goes there.
• Late nights after a Sacramento show. Getting there is easy. The last departure back is usually earlier than the encore — check the timetable for your night before you buy the ticket.

Which is where a carpool fits

TAGO is a carpool for students. You sign in with your .edu email, say where you are going, and see who else is going the same way. Nobody is running a service here — it is people with a car and people without one, sharing the cost of a trip that was already happening.

What a rider contributes is capped at the IRS standard business mileage rate for the day of the trip — a legal ceiling on cost-sharing, enforced in code rather than promised in an ad. Past the first eight miles the per-mile rate eases down, so long runs cost less per mile. For events and places, the trip back is planned alongside the trip out — the part that matters for an airport at Thanksgiving.

There is no promise a car will be there. It depends on who is going, which is why posting early beats searching late. The SFO page shows how many people are already headed that way; routes and names stay private until you sign in with your .edu.

Your first-week checklist

1. Register your bike and get the campus license before instruction starts on the 23rd.
2. Put a white front light and reflectors on it the same day.
3. Carry the physical AggieCard. A photo of it is not accepted on Unitrans.
4. Walk to Davis station once, in daylight, so you know the ten minutes is real.
5. Post the one long trip you already know about — the airport at Thanksgiving — now.