A new, social media-driven option for carpooling may be available to ASU students as early as next fall.
The Center for Student Sustainability Initiatives and the Undergraduate Student Government are looking at the possibility of adopting the rideshare service Zimride to help students organize daily and one-time carpools.
“Zimride is a ridesharing program that allows anyone with an ASU ID or ASURITE sign-in to log on to a secure site and … post a ride — whether it’s their daily commute or if they’re going down to the next ASU-UA game in Tucson — or look for someone doing that and they want to catch a ride,” Andrew Latimer, CSSI director of administration, said.
The company, which was founded in California in 2007, currently serves more than 70 universities and institutions across the nation, including Stanford, Cornell and the University of Michigan.
The idea to bring Zimride to campus started with CSSI late last semester and has moved forward with the help of USG this semester.
“We’re still in the planning phase. CSSI and USG are working together … to explore the idea to see if it would be beneficial for students and campus,” USG Vice President of Services Tina Mounlavongsy said. “I’m very excited about the idea and everything I’ve heard so far, and I’m really in favor of it.”
The hope is Zimride will help reduce the amount of traffic around campus and decrease the University’s carbon footprint, but implementing it on campus comes with a price tag of $10,000 per year, plus a startup fee of $950.
The cost includes money for marketing the service on campus, creating an ASU account online and other components of the program.
Juliet Nelson, program manager for commuter options for ASU Parking and Transit Services, said the cost is too high for PTS to fund the program, particularly when a similar service, Share the Ride, is already offered for free through Valley Metro and a company called RideShark.
“You can sign up online [on Valley Metro’s website], and if you put in an asu.edu address, it will ask if you only want to include other ASU addresses,” she said. “It does the same thing for free.”
However, Latimer said Zimride has many benefits for social media enthusiasts that are not included in the Valley Metro system, because of its ability to link directly to Facebook.
Additionally, Zimride is designed to serve university communities and offers options to customize the site.
“It’s unique as far as we’ve researched in that it does a lot with social media,” he said. “It’s a really user-intuitive interface that allows [students] to see who the driver is and if it’s someone who looks like they would get along with. It even allows you to show music preference, what type of driver you are, if you have a tendency to run late and things like that.”
Latimer also said the secure site, which would create a customized network for ASU, makes ridesharing “a lot less creepy.”
Zimride can track the number of times an individual has carpooled, lending it to be set up for competitions run by Greek life organizations and other groups to encourage carpooling among members.
“For example, someone who has carpooled 50 times in a semester gets a $20 gift card to Amazon or something like that,” Latimer said.
Nelson said Zimride’s social media aspect has a certain appeal over other similar programs, but she maintained that the cost is simply too high, especially in light of the current economic situation.
“Zimride is a great product, and if we had the funding, we would probably try it,” Nelson said. “The problem is we tried something similar to Zimride a few years ago, and not one student signed up for it. We’re just kind of hesitant in this kind of economy.”
However, Nelson encouraged the students to try to demonstrate the program can be successful at ASU.
“If they really want this, they need to come up with some funding of their own and be able to say ‘hey, it’s successful,’” Nelson said. “If they can sustain it for six months or a year, maybe it’s something we could take over and help pay for. At this point, we have a free system, and I would really like to see students try it and see what happens.”
Latimer said the program could actually increase PTS revenue by encouraging students who couldn’t typically afford a parking pass to split the cost of one, boosting the number of passes purchased.
According to information provided by Zimride, the program attracts an industry high of 10 to 20 percent of students within the first year at a lower cost per user than similar programs.
“As far as I see it, it’s a win-win situation for everyone,” Latimer said. “For students, it’s a time saver and a money saver, and for parking services, it boosts revenue.”
Reach the reporter at keshoult@asu.edu
