NuRide offers affordable carpool options and rewards

NuRide offers affordable carpool options and rewards

What could be better than saving a few bucks on gas? How about doing so while helping the environment, meeting new people and earning free stuff?

Rice commuters can do so through NuRide, the nation’s largest online ride-sharing community where members are rewarded for sharing rides.

Free to join and free to use, NuRide combines features from eBay and online airline reservations. Employees use their Rice e-mail address to join the online community of commuters, create a user name and set their travel criteria, such as a preference for nonsmokers or a particular gender. Once they’re in the system, they can list their date, departure and return times and destination and search for other drivers/riders going the same way at the same time.

If they find a matching trip and join it, both drivers and riders are notified via an e-mail from NuRide. Because participants get to rate the people they ride or drive with — much like buyers and sellers on eBay leave feedback for each other — users can check out someone’s rating before agreeing to share a ride with them.

After a set number of miles of carpooling, participants start earning reward points that can be redeemed for store gift cards, discounts and other rewards from businesses that sponsor NuRide, such as Green Mountain Coffee Roasters and Jamba Juice.

To learn more or to join and start sharing rides, register at www.nuride.com. For additional information, contact the Rice University Transportation Department at 713-349-5223 or 713-348-5996.