Dusty Crocker, an assistant professor of professional practice in art, had to replace what he calls his “gas burner,” a Ford Explorer, with a Ford Escape, a smaller sport utility vehicle, in order to get better gas mileage on his car.
Crocker lives 30 miles away from the university and has noticed cars driving the same direction to school with TCU parking stickers during his morning commutes.
“I have asked casually just to see if some other professors can carpool with me,” Crocker said.
A solution to his problems is in the works.
Beginning Thursday, university faculty and staff can now contact each other and make carpool arrangements through a program called Ride Share, an official for the human resources office, said.
Travis Reynolds, a business systems analyst for the human resources office, said Ride Share is an online community tool faculty and staff can use to post a request for ride sharing.
The university has no plans for students to use this Web site now, Reynolds said.
Pat Jolley, director of compensation for the human resources office, said the technology resources staff suggested using SharePoint, a software that acts like a bulletin for people to post messages and share information with one another.
“It is like a central point for people to communicate with each other,” Jolley said. “The idea is very simple.”
Reynolds said faculty and staff can enter their zip code and type a message, which might include the hours they are interested in carpooling with others as well as their contact information.
Jolley said the human resources office has talked to several people and organizations on campus, and the topic of having a medium for carpooling came up several times.
“Reading what other universities and other companies are doing, we see that carpooling is being encouraged,” Jolley said.
Several Web sites serve similar functions to Ride Share for people to post carpooling information, such as PickupPal.com and eRideShare.com.
Jolley said the human resources office has contacted some people to show them how to get into the program.
“We want to hear their feedback first to see what people think of it,” Jolley said.
