VOL 78 /12
Ride board creates options for students
by mike mclean
STATESMAN STAFF WRITER
Do you need to get home this weekend? Are you short a car? Perhaps you just don't want to pay for the gas to get you where you need to go. The UMD Ride Board may be a good place to check out.
For years, the Ride Board has served as a center for UMD students to find drivers or riders traveling to a shared destination. Updates are made daily, offering new rides to various places for people seeking a travel companion. On any given day, there are roughly 15 or more advertisements for a needed rider or driver.
The board itself is located right above the entrance to the game room. It consists of two maps, one of the United States and one of Minnesota. The U.S. map is divided into regions, eachof which are designated a number. One example of this is Wyoming, North Dakota, South Dakota and Montana grouped together, making region one. The map of Minnesota is divided into letters. For instance, the Twin Cities metro area is "H." Below both of these maps is a hook system in which rides are hung up according to the letter or number of their destination. A person going to the Twin Cities would be on hook "H," while a person going to Montana would be on hook "1."
To sign up for a ride, students go to the Kirby Information Desk. Here, they write down some basic information (name, phone number, destination, date, time, etc.) on one of two cards. Yellow cards are for students looking for a driver.
Students looking for a rider get a blue card. This makes it easy for someone looking at the board to distinguish before picking a card off the hook.
"It is a lot more popular than you would expect," said Arielle Ehrman, who works at the information desk. According to Ehrman, at least a half-dozen or more ride requests are filled out each day.
Zach Roelofs is one of many students who have used the Ride Board. He was looking for someone to ride with him to the Fargo/Moorhead area. This was Roelofs's first experience with the board.
"I would use [the board] again, it';s a neat idea," Roelofs said.
