Sharing a Ride Saves Money and Natural Resources

Sharing a ride to work or school can save you money, decrease wear and tear on your vehicle, and help preserve natural resources. MIT makes it even easier to share a ride by providing satellite parking in locations outside the city.

Car and Vanpool
MassRIDES
Vanpool Subsidy Program (MIT/vRide)
Zimride

Carpool and Vanpool

Commuters who want to join or start a carpool must identify themselves to their respective department Parking Coordinators.
One member of the car or vanpool must be designated as the primary member or parker; the others will be secondary members.
The primary parker provides the names and departments of the other carpool members on his/her parking application and submits it to his/her parking coordinator. This parker may choose payroll deduction or pay by check. In either case, the primary parker is responsible for the full fee.
Each secondary parker must also complete a carpool/vanpool parking application and submit it to the primary parker’s parking coordinator.
The Parking Coordinator will assemble an application packet and submit it to the Parking and Transportation Office.
The Parking and Transportation Office uses the information from the primary parker’s Parking Coordinator to assign permits. The permits are bundled up with a hang tag, and the bundle delivered to the primary parker's Parking Coordinator, who passes the bundle to the primary parker. It is the responsibility of the primary parker to distribute permits to members of that carpool.
At no time should more than one vehicle of a carpool be parked on campus. Carpools and vanpools do not count against a department's allocation.

When a Carpool Member Has No Car

Occasionally an employee without a car will ride to work with another employee (e.g., family members). This constitutes a carpool, so the passenger must also be entered in Parking and Transportation Office records. In this case, the passenger also completes a carpool/vanpool parking application and notes “no vehicle” on the application. The Parking and Transportation Office will know to issue one permit and one hangtag to the primary parker.

Student Carpool

A student who is interested in obtaining a permit for a carpool should fill out a student carpool application and return it to the Parking and Transportation Office, W20-022.

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Ride Matching Partners

MassRIDES

The Massachusetts statewide travel options program, MassRides, helps people move smarter by providing information about carpooling, bicycling, walking, public transportation, teleworking, and vanpooling..

Join NuRide to find people who travel in your same direction. Contact them up and pick a day to try a shared ride. If you like it, plan to do it daily or weekly.

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Vanpool Subsidy Program (MIT/vRide)

MIT has partnered with vRide to offer a program that provides both a monthly subsidy and a pre-tax payroll deduction. MIT regular salaried and hourly employees are eligible to participate in this program, but employees who are classified as temporary are not. Please note that employees may only participate in one MIT subsidized transportation program.

Download the subsidy enrollment form to begin the MIT/vRide Vanpool Subsidy Program.

For details about the MIT/vRide Vanpool Subsidy Program, see the list of frequently asked questions.

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Zimride

Another ride share option is Zimride. Zimride allows MIT community members to find others with similar commuting patterns or one-time travel needs. 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. You can even share your Zipcar through Zimride to reduce cost. Use of the Zimride ridesharing website will be provided at no charge to students and staff during the 2011-2012 academic year.

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