STRIPES, MU’s safe ride program, plans to premiere an application for the iPhone that would make the program more efficient for both patrons and volunteers. The app, which the program hopes will be up and running by this weekend, would allow students to request a ride without calling.
“One of the reasons we really think this will be a great benefit to the students is people calling in a loud, noisy location,” STRIPES Fundraising Assistant Chris Rucker said. “Many times we can’t hear them so it will allow them to do that without having any problems.”
When the new application goes live, it will be a part of the “goMizzou” app.
Last semester, one of the former STRIPES volunteers worked to develop the new system for the program. STRIPES spokesman Andrew Worrall said he is optimistic about the new program.
“Besides being a customized dispatch program, people could use the app instead of having to call in,” he said.
Worrall said the new dispatch system will allow smartphone GPS to find the patron’s location. That information will be sent directly to the STRIPES house, which will then send the address electronically to a dispatched car.
According to the STRIPES website, the organization estimates that they “provide an average of 800 safe rides per weekend.” The service is available Thursdays through Saturdays during the semester from 10 p.m. to 3 a.m.
The organization predicts that the new dispatch system will also make the process easier for STRIPES volunteers.
“(The new system) will allow us to be more efficient because it will reduce the number of errors of addresses and phone numbers,” Rucker said.
MU’s STRIPES program is also the first safe-ride program to debut a smartphone application, Rucker said.
STRIPES begins each ride with a call to a dispatched car. Each car has a driver and a passenger, one a male and one a female, who go to the location to pick up the patron.
STRIPES passengers must agree to the “STRIPES rights” before they are given a ride home. The rights state that STRIPES reserves the right to end the ride at any time or contact the police or hospital, that tobacco and alcohol are prohibited and that seat belts must be worn at all times.
STRIPES volunteers agree that many students get involved with STRIPES because of the reputation the program has and continue to volunteer long after.
“It was a service I used my freshman year and the director at the time told me I should join,” Worrall said.
Worrall said he has been a member of STRIPES since September 2008.
“Finally, I was working for The Maneater at the time and was assigned a story and hung out for the night and thought it was pretty cool,” he said.
Rucker got involved because he liked the service the group provides to students, but he stayed for the social aspect of the program. He has been volunteering for four semesters.
Cassie Wood has been volunteering with STRIPES for five semesters.
“I thought it was a great organization on campus that helps people so I thought I should give it a shot, and I loved every minute of it,” she said.
Wood is also looking forward to the new dispatch program.
“I think it will just give us more rides which is great, and more people are taking the initiative to get a safe ride home,” she said.