Nick Memisovski, Manager of Campus Transportations at Loyola, said that 8-ride has been around for over 20 years and has changed as the years have gone by.  Memisovski has been in the campus transportation industry for 15 years and he worked for University of Chicago’s campus transportations first for a few years and then came to Loyola. “I oversee all the parking on campus, the shuttle service, 8-ride, van rental programs, and the welcome center”, Memisovski said.

 

8-ride provides a safe way for students to get around campus in the evening and at night.  The service starts everyday during the school year at 6:30 p.m.  Students know that to use 8-ride you need your Loyola I.D. but there are many things that they don’t know about the service.  Some unknown facts about 8-ride are:

 

You can schedule a ride

 

Instead of calling for a ride at the moment you one you can schedule a ride ahead of time if you know that you want to be picked up at a certain time.  The 8-ride mobile website allows you to schedule a pick up and track your 8-ride. This cancels the wait time for a ride after calling in and helps you get to your location faster.

 

There's going to be an app

 

8-ride will possibly be available in the app store for both iPhones and Androids soon. Right now the closest thing to the app is the website that works after you sign up with three forms of identification:

 

• A social media account- Facebook, Twitter, or Google+

• Loyola email

• Loyola student ID number

 

However, campus transportations is in the process of sending the app into Google for testing, Memisovski said.

 

“The future plans for 8-ride is to get the 8-ride mobile, which is currently a website/widget, into a full-blown app so that you can download it on the Android and iTunes store. We’re actually ready to submit for testing to Google this week and hopefully by the end of next week we are ready to go to the app store”, Memisovski said.

 

The layout of the app looks like Uber and has the ability to remember past pick-up and drop-off locations as well as names of buildings on campus like Mertz.  The app will show how far the car is from you and how long it will take them to pick you up, as well as have an option to cancel the ride.  Even after the app is developed and on the app store, students will still have the option to call in for 8-ride.  Memisovski said, “At the other locations where they’ve launched the app its been a slow migration into booking it through the app because people are so used to their way of doing things.”

 

Cuneo has set departure times starting at 10:00 p.m.

 

8-ride leaves every 30 minutes from Cuneo after 10:00 p.m. until 4:00 a.m. A few years ago 8-ride used to pick up from anywhere that was called in including the IC.  However, they don’t

pick up from the IC anymore because it was too dangerous, especially in the winter with ice on the ground, Memisovski said.