Executive Summary
Project: Zimtervention will establish Zimride, an online ridesharing system, as a viable option to single-occupancy vehicle(SOV) trips to and from the UW campus. This will achieve goals of reducing campus-related carbon emissions and promoting sustainable behavior change.
The principle component of the project is to fund a new student position, Campus Rideshare Coordinator (CRC) to:
- establish a critical mass of UW Zimride users; and
- integrate UW Zimride into institutions and campus life
The CRC will work with Commuter Services during Spring 2011 and the 2011-2012 academic year, part-time at 10 hrs/week. This will fall under an undergraduate Student Assistant job classification, with hourly wages of $13 and ineligible for additional benefits.
This is the second phase of a graduate student project through the Program on the Environment’s Environmental Management Certificate (EMC). To date, UW Zimride has been introduced on campus with one of the most successful launches in program history, and the EMC students have begun implementation of a strategy for changing SOV behavior,relying on evidence-based principles of community-based social marketing and theories of sustainable behavior change.
Additional work is needed, however, to establish a critical mass of users and integrate Zimride into UW life as a trusted and well-known mode of transportation. As such, the role of the CRC will be to continue to implement and expand upon the community-based social marketing campaign. The CRC will also work to create institutional legacies, such as including Zimride into new student and staff orientation, promoting it for travel during academic breaks, and incorporating it into other Commuter Service programs. In short, the CRC will work to integrate UW Zimride into campus life.