Zimride offers Lehigh community carpooling

Ride-share programs, like Uber and Lyft, seem to be spreading around the country like wildfire. Starting only in major metropolitan areas like San Francisco and New York City, crowd-source carpooling is now everywhere, including here at Lehigh.

Lehigh has recently introduced Zimride, a ride-sharing website that allows members of the Lehigh community to set up carpools with the click of a button. With the high cost of campus parking permits, or a low budget for gasoline, Zimride caters to those who simply don’t want a car on campus.

Like other ride-sharing programs, Zimride members post anything from daily commutes to spring break road trips, along with how many seats are available and how much the ride would cost. Members are also able to post as passengers, asking for a driver to take them from point A to point B.

“I live in Chicago, so a ride-share program makes more sense there, in my opinion, than here in Bethlehem,” Jordyn Zoul, ’16, said.

When it comes to ride sharing, one of the main concerns people have is safety.

“I don’t use any of those apps,” Jessica Graham, ’17, said. “Anyone could be in those cars. You just don’t know them and what they could do.”

Unlike other ride-share programs, however, Lehigh’s Zimride is a closed community. In order to sign up for the site, members must be either a student or faculty member and have a secure Lehigh username and password. This increases the safety of the crowd-sourced cab company in a time where a competing organization, Uber, consistently makes headlines about missing passengers and suspected assault victims.

However, Uber recently began offering its services in the Lehigh Valley.

“I definitely would feel safer if I knew that it was only open to Lehigh people, especially if it was through a reputable company,” Zoul said.

The site has a checklist of items to discuss or verify with your driver and passenger, which will also help ensure the carpool is safe. The site suggests picking a public location to meet up and planning ahead any stops you might make along the way. Zimride also encourages users to give feedback, as well. This in turn can help future passengers and drivers know what they are getting themselves into, both good and bad.

“As a driver I would also have concerns,” Chris Weber, ’15, said. “I don’t want to waste my time with a passenger who I have to wait around for or doesn’t even show up.”

Zimride, however, does not ensure everything, and has posted disclaimers on its website. For example, Zimride encourages riders to check that the driver has a valid driver’s license. The program also cannot ensure that the vehicle being used is up to safety standards or if it is legally registered or insured.

All personal information, however, is kept private until a booking is confirmed, while payment transactions aren’t completed until 24 hours after the ride. However, the company does not guarantee refunds. Disclosed in its Terms of Service, the company does not have a refund policy.

The cost of the ride varies depending on the driver, but tends to be competitive to other similar services. For example, a ride from campus to the Lehigh Valley Mall is suggested to cost $5 each way based on averages of other previous transactions. When looking to post a trip, Zimride will suggest an amount to the driver, which they can then adjust. Drivers can also choose to accept cash or credit cards, however, an active PayPal account is required for any credit transactions.

Zimride is a branch of Enterprise and caters to its partnered businesses and universities. At Lehigh, Enterprise also handles the car-share program, which allows students or faculty to rent a car either hourly or daily for a low price. Also at Lehigh are bus services and weekend shuttles. Zimride is just another affordable option for those who choose not to bring a car on campus.