Unless ride share coordinators can raise $2,500, USU will lose its Zimride access
Students at Utah State University may soon have one less option for transportation.
On Dec. 15, USU will lose its subscription to Zimride, a student ridesharing program, unless the program coordinators at USU successfully raise the remaining $2,500 required for renewing USU’s subscription for another year.
Meg McCarthy and Alexi Lamm, USU Sustainable Transportation Coordinator and USU Sustainability Coordinator respectively, are trying to raise these remaining funds. On Oct. 22, McCarthy and Lamm met with the Utah State University Student Association Executive Council to ask for help in raising the remaining amount of money.
“We’re here today because we are in danger of losing [Zimride], and you guys are our last option,” McCarthy said during the meeting. “We’re coming to you guys to ask if you will fund this program for half of what it costs.”
According to Lamm, USU has provided access to Zimride free to students since 2015. Since 2015, a total of 9,030 users have used the service through USU.
Traditionally, the $6,000 subscription fee has been paid by the USU sustainability carbon offset fund, which is comprised of donations from USU faculty and staff through an optional donation on faculty transportation authorization and reimbursement forms.
However, McCarthy said the travel forms have recently changed, making it more difficult for faculty and staff to contribute as much money as they have in the past to the fund.
“We can cover $3,000 of it through the donation fund that is coming through staff or faculty, but we don’t have the other $3,000 to be able to cover the cost of this,” McCarthy said at the meeting.
Several days after the meeting with the Executive Council, Zimride offered to renew the subscription at a discounted rate for USU, lowering the yearly subscription price to $5000, McCarthy said.
Lamm said the subscription fee pays for services offered by Zimride, including a fully contained database system, statistics the program shares with the University, website maintenance and a program that links students up with other travelers.
McCarthy also said using Zimride is a significantly safer option than services such as Uber or Lift. According to McCarthy, people who use Zimride through USU have to use a university identification number, or the USU A-Number, to access the service.
“There’s a record of who took the ride, when they took the ride,” McCarthy said. “If anything bad were to happen, there’s accountability built into the system.”
McCarthy and Lamm also said Zimride is at a significantly lower cost than similar services like Uber or Lift, as students and faculty would be carpooling with a driver or passenger already headed in the direction they need to go.
“It’s different than Uber or Lift because the person driving is somebody who is taking a trip, and they’re willing to share the extra seats in their car,” Lamm said.
According to Lamm, prices are determined by the driver of the vehicle and are usually in the $10-$15 range, as opposed to the higher costs of other ridesharing services.
“Uber or Lift would be like $100 from Logan to Salt Lake,” McCarthy said. “Man, when I was a student, I did not have $100 to spare.”
However, Zimride does have some drawbacks. According to Lamm and McCarthy, destinations are determined by where the drivers are headed, not by where the passengers need to go. This means that passengers who need to get to areas outside of the Wasatch front may have a harder time finding transportation.
“Because not everybody uses it, trips that aren’t along the Wasatch front are a little bit trickier,” McCarthy said. “But it does allow a lot of students a ride when they don’t have it or a way to justify a trip when maybe they wouldn’t otherwise be able to do it.”
USUSA President Sami Ahmed said during the meeting that the executive council would discuss whether or not USUSA would help fund USU’s Zimride subscription. USU will have to inform Zimride of their decision to renew or cancel their subscription by Nov. 13. If the subscription is canceled, students and faculty can still use Zimride by up until Dec. 15.
@jshwilki