Heard of Campus Rides? Well if not here’s an interview with Avram Niebling who founded this amazing benefit for UNH Students! If you have heard of Campus Rides, keep reading to know even more!!!
What is your role with Campus Rides?
Founder, dispatcher, back up-driver, biz dev/marketing, customer service rep, head of van clean-up, accountant, attempted mechanic.
How did the idea of Campus Rides begin?
My old roommate and good friend Rob Hathorn gave rides around UNH campus last year in his personal car. I saw what he did and thought it would be cool to try and expand it into a bigger service. I really like the concept of peer-to-peer rides, and this seemed like a good opportunity to get into the space.
After speaking with my friends, Bobby and Derek, we decided to give it a shot. We got a Campus Rides phone number, a van, printed some flyers, built a Facebook page, and commenced operation.
Why do you think its important UNH has Campus Rides?
We safely move large numbers of high-risk individuals during high-risk time periods. Generally college students don’t make their best decisions between 9pm and 3am on weekend nights. I don’t know if drinking and driving has decreased on campus this year, but I’d bet that it has. (We’ve given 1300 rides since the first weekend of school, at an average of 4.5 highly intoxicated students/ride.)
Campus Rides is important because it works. Our peer-to-peer model allows us connect with student riders in ways that traditional university transportation systems cannot. This isn’t a knock on UNH Transportation at all, it’s just reality – we can handle problematic (rowdy) riders with relative ease because we have social leverage.
How does Campus Rides operate? / How Can student receive a ride from Campus Rides?
Campus Rides is a fun, quick, and cheap way to get around campus. While most of the value comes from the cheap/quick ride, it’s definitely a unique social experience being in the van. It’s not uncommon for us to pick up three separate parties in the same ride, and that makes for some interesting conversation.
Students can call our number – (603) 545-4461 – to request a ride. They just need to state their pick-up and drop-of locations, and the number of people they have in their party. For in-town (Durham) rides, we advise people to call 15-20 minutes prior to when they’d like to be picked up. For out-of-town rides (Portsmouth, Newmarket, Dover) it’s best to call at least an hour in advance.
We have a mobile site/app in development that should be ready by the start of second semester and should make the service even faster/better for students.
Campus Rides drivers work for donations only. We generally ask for $2-3/rider for in-town Durham rides, $5/rider for Newmarket and Dover rides, and around $8/rider for trips to and from Portsmouth.
How many people are involved in Campus Rides?
Bobby Berwick is a driver and original member. We grew up together and he used to spend a lot of time at UNH when I was a student. He is a great driver and a hilarious person to ride around with, and I’d say he is the fan favorite of students. Derek Swenson is a driver and the other original member. He is senior at UNH, and also has a strong following of student riders.
Without a doubt, it has been Bobby and Derek’s commitment and dedication to be on campus each and every weekend that has allowed the Campus Rides service to take off.
What’s the best story you’ve had doing Campus Rides?
A couple weeks ago we dropped a drunk girl off in front of her house at the Cottages. She got out of the van and started running towards her place, tripped hard on the stoop and went head first into her door. She ended up being alright.
Is this something that you hope will continue at UNH?
Yes, I hope it never goes away.
What is the best part of Campus rides?
Driving home after a long weekend of helping lots of people, and remembering all the people you met and talked to. I like to think we get paid to make friends.Â