By Kinzley Phillips/The Torch
kinzleyphillips@lcctorch.com
Zimride, a ride-sharing agency that provides a social media integrated online interface for students, faculty and administrators in over 250 college campuses, is now under contract with LCC’s commuter campus.
“We’ve had a good comprehensive plan for managing transportation, and this is just part of it,” said Brian Kelly, Dean of Culinary Arts and Hospitality, and co-sponsor of the administrative end of establishing Zimride.
The idea behind Zimride is that people can choose whom they want to carpool with, based on common tastes and locations, rather than relying on a complete stranger for a ride the way some other ride-share agencies work.
“It makes the process a little bit easier, so you don’t have to go on Cragslist,” said ASLCC Vice President Jenny Lor.
The way it works is students sign up with their college affiliated e-mail or facebook profile, and from there they can register as a driver or a rider or both. Drivers can list themselves with rides available in given locations for an agreed upon sum of compensation. Riders can also generate posts requesting rides.
“It’s easy to use for people who are familiar with online tools,” ASLCC President Mario Parker-Mulligan said.
Users can check the person’s Zimride profile and any information they provide there, in addition to checking out their
Facebook profile where one can find photos, mutual friends, like interests and music preferences, to ensure their ride is safe and reliable.
“It’s cool ‘cause you can find people to ride with you have your own interests,” said Wendy Smith, a dietetics nutrition student at the college.
There is also a simplified version of Zimride you can use if you don’t want to link it with Facebook.
Last Spring term LCC signed a contract with Zimride for one year of service, including an advertising and a start-up representative from the company, to assist in implementing the system.
“The initial cost I know was like $12,000 and that money came from a transportation fee carryover from last year,” Parker-Mulligan said.
If the college chooses to continue to use Zimride, that flat rate will be charged again at the end of the current contract.
“At least next term we want to get feedback from students and other users,” said Parker-Mulligan.
So far, he says, the feedback has been limited to concerns about possible Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act violations with the college releasing student e-mails to Zimride, and those concerns were unwarranted.
“No other complaints have come across my e-mail,” said Parker-Mulligan.
However, some students are still pessimistic about how popular this service will become.
“I like a lot of the idea of it, but I’m not sure it’s going to catch on the way people want it to,” said Smith.
“A lot of students have work on top of school, so unless students have a taxi service, it’s not going to work,” said Kyle English, a culinary student.
There is also some debate as to whether it’s actually assisting the parking problem on campus.
“We’ve seen traffic significantly decrease, and this is one part of it,” according to Kelly.
“I don’t think we’ll see a huge effect on parking and how many cars are on campus right away,” said Parker-Mulligan.
Regardless, students, faculty and staff are utilizing Zimride. As of Oct. 11, 804 users were registered with Zimride.
When asked how many students are utilizing the new ride-share service Kelly responded “Between ten and 30 percent of students who signed up, which would probably be around 250.”
“Faculty are using it, absolutely, administration is ride-sharing with students,” Kelly said.
So far, the website says that 409 rides have been shared from 17 cities surrounding the college.
“Especially in rural areas where people know each other better it’s probably used a lot more,” Lor said.
Some riders are commuting together from places as far away as Roseburg, Salem and Corvallis.
