After going through a test run in April, the UF Safe Ride program, a partnership between UF Student Government and Uber, has returned for Summer B.
The deal, which resumed on Friday and will last until August 7, gives UF students a 50 percent discount on rides that start and finish within the designated areas surrounding UF’s campus.
The discounts only apply Wednesday through Sunday between 10 p.m. and 3 a.m., and the ride has to be requested through the UF Safe Rides option located on the Uber app.
Student Government and Uber ran a month-long pilot program of the Safe Ride program back in April.
Blake Murphy, former SG director of external affairs, said at a recent Student Senate meeting that the program’s success during the trial run made it a no-brainer to make an effort to continue the program into Summer B.
Funding for Uber comes from the transportation access fee that is tacked on with students’ tuition. For the 2014-2015 academic year, the fee was $8.91 per credit hour.
The money collected from the transportation access fee is then used to help fund RTS, Gotcha, Gator Lift, Student Nighttime Auxiliary Patrol and Uber, Sen. Susan Webster said.
“Those are all things that I’m sure all students have used at one point,” Webster said at the June 16 Senate meeting.
In order to use the UF Safe Ride program, new and existing Uber members can go to blog.uber.com/UFsharerides to receive a promotional code. Once the user enters that code, he or she will see the “UF Safe Rides” option appear on the app.
If a ride starts or ends outside of the designated area, which covers the majority of midtown and downtown as well as all of the UF campus, the discount will not apply.
If students split the fare, all riders who have the Safe Ride option will receive the discount.
Murphy said SG originally budgeted $25,000 for the trial run. However, SG used less than $6,000 of the budget during the trial.
Murphy said the Summer B plan with Uber should also cost about $6,000.
With the cost being lower than originally anticipated, Murphy said some ideas have been discussed in order to maximize the use of the discount with Uber.
These include the potential to have three free rides per student per semester.
However, no specific details for long-term projects have been finalized.
