Students, Employees Have New Way to Share a Ride

Beginning Oct. 2, Duke community members will have a new way to share rides, whether it's a daily commute, trip to the store or weekend getaway.

Students and employees will now have access to RidePost, a ridesharing website that allows participants to match up with other commuters at Duke. By signing up with a Duke.edu email address and completing a member profile, members can find nearby riders or drivers. RidePost accounts can also connect to Facebook or LinkedIn to find friends and coworkers who may be looking to carpool to and from campus.

"We're excited for this new program because it offers a variety of functions, especially for students," said Alison Carpenter, manager for Duke's transportation demand management program. "While it will allow employees who commute to campus to easily find carpool partners, it will also allow students to match up for spontaneous trips or find rides home during breaks."

Once Duke community members create an account, they're able to fill out a slew of optional profile information to find the best match for carpooling. Information includes home address, music preferences, whether a person smokes tobacco and other personal interests.

The RidePost service replaces GreenRide. Carpenter noted that the roughly 1,400 Duke faculty, staff and students who already have a GreenRide account will have their information automatically transferred over to RidePost.

Currently, about 750 Duke students and employees are signed up as carpoolers and receive perks such as 24 daily parking passes per year, preferred, reserved spaces on campus and discounted permit rates, from half-off for a two-person carpool to free with a four-person carpool.

RidePost is based out of Columbia, S.C. and its founding staff includes Duke alum Nik Budisavljevic '07. The company serves other higher education institutions like Clemson University, Western Carolina University and Longwood University.