By Stephaney Wilson
Elm Staff Writer
We now have a version of Uber on campus. Campus Drive is one of the hottest apps at Washington College right now. Who wouldn’t want a driver to take them to the nearest fast-food restaurant at one in the morning?
As a student, I am delighted about this new initiative. To have a driver at my fingertips, at any time of any day in Chestertown, is beyond helpful; it’s absolutely fantastic. I no longer have to waste my time waiting for Safe Ride when they could be helping tons of other people who are either drunk or stranded somewhere. Safe Ride drivers no longer have to feel like their time is wasted by driving me to Taco Bell in the middle of the night.
Senior Daniel Feder, who has used both Safe Ride and Campus Drive, agrees.
“I like riding Safe Ride, but I could see the stress many of the drivers are under. It’s definitely a nice change to have to the WC transportation platform,” he said.
The school community needs this app. I love Chestertown, but sometimes I want to get out of the small town. I want to explore other areas like Middletown or the local theater in Churchill, but I am also a very busy college student. With that comes less free time for outings and more time devoted to studying, work, and classes. I often find myself running errands close to the wee-bit hours of the night like food and grocery shopping. Having an app like this at my disposal makes all kinds of trips like these possible.
Since finding out about Campus Drive, I decided to try it out. My friend and I were planning to go to Café Sado, the day after receiving the email announcing Campus Drive. It was dark and cold outside, so we decided that it was too unsafe to walk that half mile road. This was a good example of how Campus Drive can come to the rescue. We immediately downloaded the app, put in our credit card information, and requested a ride from our location to Café Sado.
The estimated price was $5.06 to be exact, which wasn’t a bad price at all, and we paired with a driver that was about five minutes away from our location. We were relieved to know that we were minutes away from getting to eat sushi. Unfortunately, we were never able to embark on this trip, as the estimated time of our drivers arrival was incorrect. We received a phone call from the driver after booking and he told us that he was actually 20 minutes away. We were disappointed and hungry. In other circumstances, the 20 minute wait would have been fine, but we were on a time crunch that evening as we were planning to do other things and we could not wait. The app certainly still has some bugs to work out, but overall it is a great program.
Clearly, the program was a massive hit on Friday, and drivers were at a high demand, as we were unable to rebook another driver that evening. This makes sense, as there are not a lot of drivers signed up to the program as of yet. I am hopeful that as the program gains momentum, more drivers will sign up and it will be easier to match passengers with available drivers.
Overall, I would have to say that Campus Drive is a much needed platform here at WC. Don’t take my first encounter to heart. Try it out for yourself, and catch a ride with a friend into town one day.