5-SURE Safe Rides .
identifying bottlenecks within Stanford's free rideshare service
In the HCI course Service Design, our team conducted a comprehensive analysis of 5-SURE Safe Rides, a free rideshare service available to Stanford affiliates from 8 PM to 2 AM.
Team
Britney Tran, Philip Baillargeon, Steven Opferman, Trisha Kulkarni
Method
user interviews, synthesis and grounded theory, rapid experimentation
Duration
6 weeks
Interviewing Stakeholders
To uncover challenges affecting the program's effectiveness, we interviewed seven different stakeholders.
7 Actor Groups, 12 Interviews
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Riders: Stanford affiliates who have used 5-SURE
Drivers: paid students driving 5-SURE vehicles
Co-Directors: paid students managing the 5-SURE team
SUPER: Office of Substance Use Programs & Educational Resources; administrative role above the 5-SURE program
RAs: Dormitory student residential assistants who provide primary support and guidance to residents.
Non-Riders: callers attempting to book a 5-SURE, but cancelled
5-SURE On Foot: Peer program supporting students during weekend campus nightlife
"They told us that it'd be at least 30 minutes,...longer than it would've taken to walk"
-Non-Rider
"People think we have more staff working at any given time"
-Directors
"It's not just having the money to operate the service, it's having enough money to operate the service and grow the service."
-SUPER
Grounded Theories
In order to begin synthesizing our interview data, we created grounded theories inspired by real experiences. The full document breaking down our analysis can be found here.
I usually just assume it'll take a longer time.
-Rider
5-SURE SafeRides uses outdated systems that rely on the labor of a few very experienced students, causing the entire service to be inefficient and unsustainable.
[Showing wait estimates was] one of the main things that we asked for it to be changed on our main interface, and [university IT] didn't.'
-Co-Director
Because the service has low visibility due to its status as a student-run program that operates late at night, it is difficult to coordinate with campus partners to properly support the program.
I've definitely waited for people at least 15 minutes. And in those situations, you're technically allowed to leave…it feels wrong, to deny people the ride.
-Driver
The service’s safety-critical status heightens the emotion involved and increases the severity of these gaps in service, especially as denying any rides feels like abandoning fellow students.
Journey Map
We each created a journey map predicting the potential thoughts and behaviors of an actor inspired by our interviews. This allows us to identify points of emotion during the experience. The below journey map is created for a 5-SURE rider.
