The future of car pooling at UCF will depend on social media starting June 29, according to an announcement made by Student Government Association Vice President Taylor Lochrane on Wednesday night.
Zimride, a social-networking car pool program based in Palo Alto, Calif., promises to help alleviate campus congestion and packed parking garages at UCF by connecting students with one another for rides to campus, around town or even weekend trips home.
"The more vehicles we can keep off campus and out of the parking lot, the better," Lochrane said. "It's not going to solve the problem, but it is going to help."
The website, zimride.ucf.edu, went live Wednesday. It allows students, faculty and staff to create a profile using their Knights e-mail and link it to their Facebook accounts. Students can officially begin using the free service June 29.
From there, students can enter their class schedules in hopes of pairing up with another student who shares a similar schedule so that they may carpool to campus.
While there is no fee for the services, Lochrane said students may opt to offer drivers incentives such as buying them a cup of coffee or providing them with money for gas.
The idea was presented to the UCF Parking and Transportation Advisory Committee, of which Lochrane is a member, six months ago by Patricia Euzent, an economics professor at UCF.
Krishna Singh, the director of Parking and Transportation Services at UCF, has also worked closely with Lochrane and Euzent on the project.
The university signed a two-year contract with Zimride and will pay $9,000 annually for the services. According to Lochrane, SGA will pay $4,500 each year, and Parking and Transportation Services will pay the rest.
"We want to take baby steps, this is a new program," he said.
Lochrane recognizes safety as the No. 1 concern for students and said there have been no reported incidents regarding safety issues since Zimride's launch in 2007.
"Safety is an issue, but what it has shown at other universities is that it hasn't been an issue," he said. "People are very excited, and they use the program."
Lochrane advises that students meet up before carpooling to ensure safety. Students will also be able to rate drivers and leave comments on the drivers' profiles for other users to read. Also, only users with working UCF e-mail accounts will be able to participate in the program.
According to Lochrane, the program is taking off around the country.
Zimride has been implemented at more than 40 U.S. universities, such as University of California at Los Angeles, Stanford, the University of Michigan and Cornell, and it has more than 350,000 users nationwide.
"What I'm hoping is that the students who live on campus connect with one another," he said.
Zimride aims to combat carbon dioxide emissions around the country through its online match-up service.
According to the Environmental Protection Agency, driving personal vehicles contributes to 20 percent of the overall CO2 emissions.
The website will monitor speed limits and travel routes to show students how much CO2 they are emitting.
It will also alert students of how many gallons of gas it takes to get from place to place and the total cost per trip — as well as what they are saving.
"This service provides students the opportunity to share gas mileage," Lochrane said. "This saves money, because you don't have to drive to campus every day and can alternate rides."
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