Zimride shares rides to cut emissions, costs

A new ride-sharing program will help IU students, faculty and staff create eco-friendly carpools.

Zimride is an online ride-sharing program created by an outside company that combines Google Maps, Facebook, Twitter and customer reviews to link drivers with potential riders. Zimride’s IU partnership is funded by the IU Student Association.

After creating an account through the University Central Authentication Service login, users can link their profiles to Facebook and post or look for upcoming trips. Users can personalize their profiles to display details like desired compensation, smoking, departure and return time and trip frequency.

A Google Maps interface shows the exact route planned by the driver seeking a rider to split costs or the desired route for a rider seeking a driver.

Once users have finished sharing a ride they can rate their riding partners, a feature IUSA Chief Transportation Officer and senior Ilya Rekhter said enhances the program’s credibility.

“The main problem with creating carpools or using a ride board in the past has been ‘I don’t who you are, you don’t know who I am.’ It’s just a Post-It note, and really there’s no credibility,” Rekhter said.

Rekhter said the program costs IUSA $7,500 per year. That money is taken from IUSA’s special projects fund, which was built into IUSA’s budget after IUSA chose not to rehire an executive secretary and eliminated multiple unused phone lines from its office. The use of IUSA funds was approved by Congress.

Rekhter said he supports the use of student funds for Zimride because he thinks it will ultimately save students money.

“It’s turning the secretary’s salary, which we didn’t need, into something that’s going to help every single student and faculty member, if they’re willing to be part of it,” Rekhter said. “And it inadvertently helps the environment.”

In fact, each user’s Zimride profile displays the amount of carbon emissions reduced by sharing a ride through Zimride.

IU’s Executive Director of Transportation Services Kent McDaniel said the system has been talked about for some time but did not become a reality until IUSA offered to provide the funds. McDaniel said contracting IUSA, rather than the University, into the program would eliminate some liability concerns.

“Our role in transportation services is merely one of assistance and support at this time,” McDaniel said.

McDaniel explained that it was difficult to obtain licensing for IU’s trademark symbol because of liability concerns. Advertisements bear the words “at Indiana University Bloomington,” and a small IU symbol is placed under the CAS login.

McDaniel explained that IU wants to be restrictive by using the CAS login.

“There’s no guarantee that just because somebody’s affiliated with IU that means they’re going to be a good person to ride with, but it does screen out members of the general public and a lot of other people, so there’s a little bit of a sense of security there,” McDaniel said.

McDaniel said Facebook links and the customer feedback mechanism also provide security.

For vice president for Administration and former Btown president, junior Peter SerVaas, Zimride is one of three transportation-focused initiatives handled during his time in office.

A GPS bus tracking program, an initiative on both the Btown and new iUnity administrations’ platforms, is still in development. The Zipcar program already provides students with alternative transportation in the form of rental cars located around campus.

Zimride and Zipcar are run by different outside companies, but have partnered to promote one another on Zimride’s website.

SerVaas described Zimride as a way of showing “the transition to our generation and applying the technology available to find a new solution.”