By Harry Mok

On a trip to Zimbabwe in 2005, Logan Green saw a public transportation system that worked. In a country with little infrastructure, a grassroots network of minibuses called "tro tros" traversed routes where people wanted to go, charged a nominal fee and moved at a good pace.

That experience motivated him to create a ride-sharing network used today by 55 universities — including nine University of California campuses and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Along with easing the commutes of UC students and staff, the ride-sharing network is helping the university achieve its goal of reducing its carbon footprint.

As a student Green started the first car-share program at UC Santa Barbara while working at the campus transportation department. He also served three years on the Santa Barbara city transit board. So, he had some experience with the common complaints about public transportation systems: They're expensive to build, they're too slow or they don't go where people want them to go.

In Zimbabwe, Green didn't see many of those issues in the organic, user-driven system that sprouted up. The network of tro tros was large-scale ride sharing or share-taxis, a common form of transportation in many countries and something Green thought could be replicated in the United States.

"Seeing how powerful this form of transportation really inspired me to create something that would have a positive feedback loop," Green said. "Where the more people who are using the program, the stronger it becomes, the cheaper it becomes, the more reliable it becomes."

Social media meets sustainability

Green came home and began planning an online social networking service that could match a large pool of drivers and passengers who can share a ride, save money and benefit the environment by cutting auto use and carbon emissions. He named it Zimride after his experience in Zimbabwe.

At around the same time Green was cooking up Zimride, John Zimmer, who was working on Wall Street, was developing a business plan for a ride-sharing network after being inspired by an urban planning class he took in college. The two found each other through mutual friends via Facebook, where Zimride got its start as an application.

"It was crazy because it was a very similar idea that I had been thinking about, and that I was very excited about," Zimmer said. "And Logan had called his Zimride, and my last name is Zimmer. It was just a crazy coincidence after his trip to Zimbabwe."

The two decided to work together to get Zimride off the ground. With the help of a $250,000 grant from Facebook, Zimride went live with Zimmer's alma mater Cornell being the first to deploy the company's software in 2008.

Universities pay Zimride $10,000 annually to administer and market the system to their students and staff. Zimride also is expanding into the corporate market, with clients such as Wal-Mart and Cigna.

Campuses provide starting point

College campuses were a good place for Zimride to start because they offer a dense population with similar travel patterns, which is needed for ridesharing to work on a large scale, Zimmer said.

Zimride's system creates a closed, social network for each university or company. Users register with their university or company e-mail address on Zimride's website. After that, they optionally can login and link Zimride with their Facebook account.

Once registered, users create a profile that can include contact information, regular commute routes and ride preferences such music tastes, whether they object to smoking in the car and if they want to share costs for gas. The system allows users to post requests for rides or passengers from within their own network for commutes or a one-time trip. There's also a public group that allows those not affiliated with a network to share rides with each other.

So, while ride partners may not know each other, Zimmer said the social networks being built and the shared institutional association provides a layer of trust. Users can post comments and feedback ratings about each other, which provides another level of transparency.

"It's not like you're riding with any particular strangers from outside the organization, it's all within UCSF," said Robert Wong, campus ride-share coordinator at UCSF. "There's a name associated with who you're riding with. Because of those options more people are willing, who haven't tried carpool before, will try it for the very first time."

UC Berkeley employee Kathleen Valerio had been carpooling for several years and started using Zimride when it was first offered on campus in March. She said she had no qualms about finding ride partners through the service.

"To have something authenticated through Berkeley, I just felt better about who I was riding with," said Valerio, who works at the campus Center for Organizational & Workforce Effectiveness.

Harry Mok is principal editor in the UC Office of the President's Integrated Communications group. For more information, visit the UC Newsroom or follow us on Twitter.