Cougs Ride Safe is a new initiative to bring free and discreet rides back to campus for students in need. The program, a partnership with the DMAC Foundation, which contributed $25,000 to the program, aims to fill the hole left by Cougar Safe Rides, which ended in 2024 amid widespread misuse and abuse.
The service offers students free rides home through Lyft between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m. within a three-mile radius of campus, said Mauro Ramirez, director of health and safety at ASWSU. When students sign up through the GetHomeSafe website using their WSU email, they are provided with codes for three free rides.
Students are provided with an initial three rides due to limited funds and a history of misuse by students with the defunct Cougar Safe Rides, Ramirez said. In the past, once CSR became available to all students, people began overusing it for free and easy rides.
The primary difference between Cougar Safe Rides and Cougs Ride Safe has to do with liability and management. CSR was operated through the Women*s Center, which utilized their own fleet of vehicle and bore the liability. Cougs Ride Safe, however, is funded by an outside group and operated through Lyft, which vets drivers and bears the liability.
Though the partnership does not directly involve Lyft, Ramirez said the program currently utilizes Lyft exclusively for its implementation at the WSU Pullman campus. However, the hope is to eventually move away from Lyft and build the program back up to something like Cougar Safe Rides.
Though the program has received some criticism for using Lyft, Ramirez said it is an important part of what he sees as the first phase.
“A lot of backlash has been that it’s through Lyft,” he said. “The reality is, once we get the word out … I think that we can get this to grow to a point where we can bring back Cougar Safe Rides.”
While all rides requested through the program have been fulfilled, Ramirez said drivers are limited and availability varies, which is why the program is requesting more drivers. Drivers can get paid through Lyft and receive service hours by volunteering through the Center for Community Engagement.
Ramirez said the only issue he sees is the need for more drivers and outreach.
“The only current issue that I can see is we just need more student drivers. We need more outreach,” he said. “We need more students to know that this is a resource that already exists.”
Getting the word out there and increasing the number of people who utilize the service is how the program can be made better, Ramirez said.
“The more student drivers that we have out there, the more requests are gonna come in, and the more popular this is gonna get,” he said. “I think once we show the data that this is being used and showing success and growth, I think that can allow for improvement and help from the university … either by providing more funding or bringing back those vehicles that we had.”
Ramirez said the program is important to him because it responds to the needs and concerns brought up by students.
“It’s important to me because I think this is something that students, especially college students in Pullman, have a fear of,” he said. “A lot of the concerns have been about how we can make this campus safer.”
