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TUCSON - The University of Arizona announced today they've partnered with Zimride to launch a social network for ridesharing. The Zimride platform uses Facebook integration to create a fun way to find friends to share commutes or one-time rides. This private network empowers individuals to join together and reduce campus traffic, parking difficulties and provide substantial cost-savings for our community.

"We are excited to offer a program that will allow our community to easily find and share rides to school and between campuses," said Mark Napier, Associate Director, Parking and Transportation, "Zimride's solution is appealing to our students who want to save money. We believe this will reduce congestion and make campus commuting more efficient for everyone."

Zimride has developed a custom rideshare solution to serve The University of Arizona's campus population. Through Zimride's web-based interface, faculty, staff and students can find others with similar commuting patterns or one-time rides. As a social network platform with optional Facebook integration, Zimride is fun to use and helps establish trust among users. Just like with Facebook, Zimriders can view profiles for common networks, interests and friends before deciding to share a ride. This new transportation alternative is a fun, easy and sustainable way for everyone to collectively make a difference.

Starting this summer, all UA students, faculty and staff can access the free University of Arizona Zimride network at http://zimride.arizona.edu. The private system requires a UA NetID account to gain access. A portion of the first year funding for this most important project came from the UA Green Fund.

This partnership marks a significant step in improving campus sustainability practices. Furthermore, ridesharing on daily commutes or on longer, one-time trips will substantially reduce the costs of travel for the community.