Electronic hitchhiking greens up the daily commute

When former President Charles Kupchella signed the President's Climate Commitment two years ago, it came with the stipulation that the UND administration would work to decrease the carbon footprint of the campus and eventually become climate neutral.

UND's Greenhouse Gas Inventory Report, published in January, said students, faculty and staff commuting to and from the campus contributed to nearly half of the school's entire transportation emissions and more than seven percent of UND's entire greenhouse emissions.

That could all change, at least somewhat, by a new program that one student is hoping to push through Student Government. Zimride, a Facebook-integrated carpooling service that offers students the opportunity to arrange ride-shares, has been making waves on college campuses across the US and is being hailed as an effective way to cut down on congestion and green house gases.

The program, which has been implemented at University of California Santa Barbara, UC Berkeley, UCLA, University of Minnesota and a number of other college campuses across the country, has over 300,000 registered users.

How it works There are essentially two ways to use the Zimride application-day-to-day commuting and long-haul trips; the program works to automatically link individuals heading in the same direction.

But it's also so much more than that.

For those who may be a bit hesitant to ride with a complete virtual stranger-one that they've barely met online-Zimride taps into Facebook to allow students to check out the person's profile, see if they have any friends in common and even look to see if they're into the same music (there's nothing worse than listening to Lady Gaga when you're a heavy metal fan). "This program is meant to be fun," said sophomore Clarinda Solberg, who is heading up the UND Zimride movement. "It's not just about going green, it's also a lot of fun and you have the chance to meet friends and stuff."

Solberg began investigating the Zimride option earlier this year as a part of her honors thesis. "I've been working on this for a long time … it would be a really awesome program I think we would be able to effectively implement on campus."