CU NightRide

Student-operated program CU NightRide provides safe evening transportation for students, staff and faculty — for free. 

During the 2021–22 school year, CU NightRide provided more than 17,600 rides.  

Founded in 1985 under the name NightWalk, the program enlisted student volunteers as night-time walking companions for their peers. Since then, NightWalk has evolved into NightRide. 

Nikolas Provost (ElEngr’21; MS’23), who has worked with NightRide since he was a first-year student, said his job “lets me do my part in making CU a safer place and allows me the chance to meet a huge chunk of the community I otherwise wouldn’t have.” 

Using NightRide is easy: On the CU NightRide app, students indicate their pickup and dropoff location — anywhere within Boulder city limits — and the next available student driver will pick them up. The service includes an ADA-compliant vehicle. 

Sophomore Mary Miller (EnvDes’25) uses NightRide two to three times a week going to and from campus late at night. 

“As someone who lives off campus and doesn’t have a car, it’s really useful,” she said. “Especially in the winter when it gets darker earlier in the day, I feel like I can’t go as many places or do as much. But with CU NightRide, I feel like I have more freedom.”