In 2007, the St. Paul Transportation Management Organization (TMO) brought the nation’s first incentive-based ride network, a national web-based organization called NuRide, to the seven-county metro area. Estimating that a 10% increase in ridesharing decreases congestion delays by 50%, the TMO believes everyone would start getting around a bit more quickly if we all shared a ride once in a while.

NuRide is a free service is available to anyone with an organizational e-mail address (e.g., @state.mn.us, @target.com, @urbancoalition.org, @mcad.edu) and can be used for occasional single rides one-way or round-trip, for regular and semi-regular commuting, and for conference organizers who wish to facilitate carpooling to their events.

Working like a ride board, individuals who live and/or work in the Twin Cities metro area (or in the Houston, New York City or Washington, D.C. metro areas) can use NuRide up to 30 minutes before they need a ride. Like Metro Transit’s carpooling service, riders/drivers can specify constraints for example, only male riders, only non-smokers, number of riders, etc. Riders and drivers “grade” each other anonymously so, for example, a rider might decide not to accept a ride offer from a driver who is ranked low on the punctuality scale. Also, for every trip, NuRiders (riders and drivers) earn roughly 100 points (equals about $1.00) which can be redeemed at local businesses (who help financially sponsor NuRide).

To learn more about NuRide and try it out, register at www.nuride.com.