With commutes home for the holidays and trips to the Champs Sports Bowl among the transportation considerations of students, alternatives to services sponsored by the university are becoming more popular.

While the university’s ride-sharing service, www.needaride.umd.edu, does not list any upcoming trips, some students are turning to Facebook to seek traveling companions and carpools.

One such student, junior management and organization finance major Josh Heibein, has recruited a group of 14 people to drive together to Orlando for the Champs Sports Bowl, which is on Dec. 29.

“I knew I wanted to go, and figured it’d be more fun if other people went,” he said.

Heibein put the trip itinerary together himself using Microsoft Excel, he said. Though he contacted several people individually about going, creating an event on Facebook was the best way to spread the word to other people he knew, he said.

“Most people I had talked to before,” he said, but he gained several attendees once he made the event.

Heibein said the price of transportation and lodging ended up around $120 per person. The arrangements were not made with university services in mind because no carpool service met his needs, and no student bus has been advertised as making the trip, he said.

No campus-sponsored transportation to the Champs Sports Bowl has been arranged for students, but Transportation Services Director David Allen said he has not ruled out the possibility.

“We have not been approached by any organization willing to sponsor a student bus, but we have done things like that in the past, and it’s usually through a student group,” Allen said. “There probably will be one.”

The Department of Transportation Services does not sponsor the Needaride program, but does coordinate databases of registered carpoolers for everyday commuters, Allen said. The Smart Park Carpool database at www.parking.umd.edu/carpool provides a way for students to find others with matching commutes and gives students incentives for registering their carpools, he said.

After organizing a carpool with other students, a student can fill out a form to register and will receive a special parking permit and information for how to reduce the cost of official permits, Allen said.

“After a certain number of occasions that a carpool enters a lot, they get discounts on their parking permits,” he said. Students also receive “preferential parking closer to the core of campus.”

However, some students said the university’s carpool accommodations were not as convenient as they would have liked.

“They make you use the pay lots so you can check in every time you go in together and they can make sure you’re earning your discounted permit,” said architecture graduate student Elizabeth Maeder, who used to carpool with her brother. “But the pay lots aren’t the most convenient parking lots, and it’s a hassle to go through all that.”

In addition, Maeder said while carpooling cut down on gas expenses, she and her brother both had to purchase parking permits because there were some days when they needed to drive separately.

The university offers other opportunities to commute cheaply and conveniently, in addition to the carpool program, Allen said.

“We’re always looking for new ways for students to use alternative transportation – anything that contributes to the reduction of single-occupancy vehicles on campus,” he said.

Use of the park-and-ride bus in Burtonsville is up 200 to 300 percent in the last year, Allen said, and because of successes in Laurel and Burtonsville the department is looking to add other stations for next fall.

Students should be open-minded about transportation alternatives, Allen said.

“Don’t be confined by just looking for carpools; go to www.transportation.umd.edu and look at all the different services our website can provide,” he said.

Contact reporter Tommy Ashton at newsdesk@dbk.umd.edu.