Last week the Binghamton Metropolitan Transportation Study (BMTS) introduced a free online program that could soon help Binghamton University students plan carpools home.

Although the program, called Broome-Tioga GreenRide, is currently intended to assist local commuters seeking alternative transportation within the Broome-Tioga area, a potential feature on its Web site would be helpful to students. If added, a “Special Event Module” on the GreenRide site would allow students to coordinate and share the costs of rides home.

The program would be similar in function to the physical ride board that existed on the wall of the Old University Union before its recent renovations.

Scott Reigle, senior transportation planner of BMTS, said the service could be available as early as this fall.

“If we find that there is enough of a demand and the service could be used, we could add the module for the fall 2010 semester,” he said. “We would like student feedback on the desire for the module to be added to GreenRide, and whether they are likely to use it.”

BMTS is a regional transportation planning agency, whose mission is to meet the transportation needs of the county. The mission of GreenRide is to decrease automobile expenses, ease congestion and parking demand and reduce pollution and fuel consumption.

Peter Napolitano, director of Auxiliary Services and BU’s GreenRide portal administrator, said that the GreenRide program “was originally designed to serve as a carpooling program for employees … to find matches with persons who could share a ride.”

By registering online under BU, users can find other commuters within or outside the University community to share ride costs.

After personal carpool information, travel destination and potential match preferences are selected, GreenRide generates compatible ride-share partners by comparing it to the information provided by other users. To protect privacy, potential matches are displayed only by their first name and last initial.

After a potential carpool partner is selected, the match may be contacted by e-mail through the Web site. BMTS insists that carpool matching is generally safe, but still suggests that an initial meeting should always be arranged in a comfortable public area before carpooling.

GreenRide is also active in reaching out to employers and other educational institutions to help employees who face parking issues. An employer assigns a portal administrator, who customizes the portal page and provides publicity and incentives for carpooling to employees or students. Since the program’s introduction, United Health Services, Lourdes Hospital, Delta Engineering and now BU have created such portals.

Reigle said that the general reaction to the GreenRide program has been positive overall.

“[There is] perhaps some frustration with not many potential ride-share matches occurring at first,” Reigle said. “This is to be expected when starting a ride-share service, and there will be increasing numbers of matches as the number of accounts increase.”

As of Friday, 285 GreenRide accounts have been created.

Reigle encouraged students to contact BMTS about the program by e-mailing him at sreigle@co.broome.ny.us, going to www.BroomeTioga.Greenride.com, through Facebook under Binghamton Metropolitan Study or by phone at (607) 778-2443.