Brandeis University’s Campus Carpooling Program Success

In 2017, Brandeis University adopted the RideAmigos software platform to help commuters more easily and efficiently manage their transportation needs. As the university was preparing to launch a RideAmigos-powered campus carpooling program, the school’s assistant director of English Language Programs, Amy Rinaldo, said, “Traffic can be long and stressful, and I also feel environmentally guilty and frustrated about my commute.” At the time, Rinaldo lived about nine miles from campus, and had been locked into the habit of solo driving. “[Solo commuting] takes a toll on life, which is why I was so excited about the possibility of carpooling.”

Now, just over a year later, it’s become clear that Rinaldo was far from alone in her feelings. Brandeis University officially launched their RideAmigos-powered carpooling program in October 2017, and the number of carpooling trips to and from campus nearly doubled after it was implemented.

Sustainability manager Mary Fischer noted, “We are making strides. More people realize that they live much closer to other Brandeisians, including those who have compatible schedules.” Since the launch of the campus carpooling program, Rinaldo has settled into a habit of ride-sharing about once a week, and tries to bike or take the train as often as possible. “Brandeis has a great community and carpooling has helped me meet people from across campus in a different capacity.”

The strong performance of the Brandeis campus carpooling program highlights a few of the key benefits of creating ride-sharing communities to serve educational institutions:

• They fill a gap by providing a program that many people would use if it were available
• They reduce commute-related stress and cost
• They help commuters form new social connections

The RideAmigos commuter platform provides a complete suite of administrator-end and user-end tools that make it easy to create, join, and manage carpooling networks while connecting with community members looking to share rides. In our work with academic institutions, we’ve consistently found that commuters would be more than happy to use alternatives to solo driving if they were readily available, and that’s exactly what our platform achieves.

RideAmigos is proud to be a big part of the success of Brandeis’s campus carpooling program, and we’d love to help your organization become our next success story. To learn more, get started with RideAmigos today.