The semester is underway and gas is going up. That’s why Wayne State has partnered with the ride-sharing network Zimride to provide students with a way to find fellow Warriors to carpool with.

Zimride has been helping college students and business people form carpools since 2006. The company, founded by Logan Green, Matt Van Horn and Jon Zimmer, combines the power of social networks with its route-matching algorithm to help people connect with other commuters. Today, the company serves more than 80 universities and companies including the University of Michigan, Stanford University and Jet Blue.

“It’s basically like another social network,” said Amy Fox, Zimride’s Zimvangelist. “You create a profile or link an existing one like Facebook.”

Profiles consist of basic information including name, gender, whether or not smoking is allowed, an “About Me” section, networks and route details.

Once a profile is set up, users can search for or post rides within their networks and connect with those in their network to set up carpools. Drivers can charge a self-chosen fee for each rider in their car. Ride payouts are safely completed using PayPal.

Safety is a big concern for Zimride, according to Fox. For this reason, the ride-sharing program tries to make the profiles as personable as possible so students have plenty of information when deciding whom to connect with. The website also has a guide on how to contact and set up rides safely.

“Students now-a-days require more info to make a decision because they are used to getting a bunch of information,” Fox said.

The addition of Zimride to WSU was brought about as a response from the Student Senate to concerns from the WSU community.

“At the early stages we heard students concerns about rising gas prices and tuition increases with a slow economy,” said Gurrajan Singh, the Student Senate Community Affairs chairperson during the 2010-2011 term. “A fellow student brought (Zimride) to our attention and (the) Senate thought it might be a great thing to have on campus for both commuters and those living in the dorms or off-campus housing locations.”

The process of bringing the program to campus began by researching Zimride, according to Kevin Tatulyan, Student Senate president.

“Acknowledging the fact that is a primarily a commuter campus, we wanted to look out for those students,” Tatulyan said. “So we thought (it) would be better to bring a safe car-sharing program (to WSU). We had to research the program, see where else it was being used, and then had talks with the higher level administration to make this possible.”

When the Student Senate voted to bring Zimride to WSU, it signed a three-year contract. The senate pays a discounted price of $10,000 a year to use the program because the university is also partnered with Zipcar.

The company boasts of the many benefits of Zimride, which weighed heavily in the Student Senate’s decision to bring the program to WSU.

“It provides students the opportunity to save money,” said Dr. David Strauss, dean of students at WSU and a supporter of Zimride.

Students save money in numerous ways. They save on fuel charges and car maintenance thanks to the ride payouts, which provide drivers with gas money and money to service their vehicles when needed.

Zimride also gives students an opportunity to reduce their carbon footprint, according to Singh.

“This was a big thing for us,” Singh said. “Wayne is a commuter school, so our carbon footprint is very big. We hope by having this program at Wayne, a lot of commuters will take advantage of it and in return reduce their carbon footprint.”

In fact, Zimride says that institutions using the program have on average reduced the amount of harmful carbon emissions they produce by 500,000 lbs. a year.

The program also allows administrators access to how many users are coming from which cities and at which times, according to Singh.

“This (provides) the university (with) a greater understanding of how to establish class schedules,” Singh said. “Moreover, students may be encouraged to stay later as they wait on the next ride home. (By) doing so, students may choose to adventure into Midtown or spend time in the 24-hour Undergraduate Library studying and preparing for next class.”

But Zimride is not only for students.

“Anyone with a wayne.edu email can use it,” Strauss said, “so faculty and staff can use it too.”

Strauss hopes to expand the Zimride program in the future to include the Detroit Medical Center and Henry Ford Hospital.

“Wouldn’t it be cool if the three major employers in Midtown all used Zimride? We’d love to see it down the road be open to those with a wayne.edu, a dmc.org or an hfhs.org email account,” Strauss said.

But Zimride needs to become successful within the WSU community before it can expand to include the rest of Midtown, and only time will tell if the ride-sharing program will make it at WSU or not.