Match a ride for carpool to school

Some students bus to Algonquin College, others drive and some share a ride with Ride Match.

Mina Ibrahim, a heating, refrigeration and air conditioning technician student, has been giving another student a ride through Ride Match on Tuesday and Thursday since the beginning of October.

Ibrahim Signed up on Ride Match and a few days after he got a message from another student asking for a ride. He drives every day from downtown Ottawa to Algonquin College and he offers a free ride. “The $5 that I would get from a ride will not make a big difference so I put it for free because I am driving anyway,” Ibrahim said.

It’s one of the many ways to get to our destination with fewer cars on the road. The city of Ottawa collaborated with Algonquin College and the Unversity of Ottawa to provide Ride Match as a carpool service for Ottawa and Gatineau residents at a very low cost.

There are 2740 active parking permits at Algonquin College and only 137 of them use Ride Match. The parking service staff came up with the idea this past summer as a solution to the parking crisis.

If you want to get a $3 to $5 ride, the Ottawa Ride Match is free to sign up. As new users, personal information is required such as email address and phone number. For easier and faster registration, you can sign up with Facebook. The first step to select the ride you want is selecting the location, the destination and the date. Then you choose the ride that’s closest to you and the cheapest.

If you want to give a ride and share the gas cost with others, more information is required. The vehicle information is required and the price for a seat which has a max of five dollar per seat and last question is what type of payment accepted for the ride.

This summer Algonquin College first partnered with the City of Ottawa and the University of Ottawa to use Ride Match for free. A few years ago, however, Algonquin College had to pay for the service. Brian Langer, operations supervisor at Algonquin, said the college had to cut the service a few months after using it.

“We didn’t want to pay for a service that students didn’t want to use,” Langer said.

Ride Match is more active near the University of Ottawa, according to the City of Ottawa. There are 5,700 Ride Match active users Ottawa wide.

Langer said Algonquin College has carpool spots around the college but not enough users for it. “There’s a lot of Lyft and Uber around the College but very few carpools,” he said.