Ethical and Green

Something is happening in the world of car-sharing: drivers are no longer happy to sit in traffic jams, surrounded by other single-occupancy vehicles, and more of them than ever have been signing up to car-sharing schemes. The environmental and financial benefits are making it an increasingly mainstream form of transport.

In fact, by the end of January, over 300,000 people will have registered with liftshare,  the UK’s largest scheme – with about 300 new members signing up to the free network every day. But does it really make a genuine difference to how green your lifestyle is?

Well consider this: in 2005, over 60% of cars on the UK’s roads had only one occupant (among commuters, that figure was 85%). Overall, our average occupancy level is 1.6 people per car. In 1965, that figure was 2. Not such a big drop, you may think. Until you realise that it results in literally millions of empty car seats on the UK’s roads every single day.

If occupancy levels only increased back from 1.6 to two, nine million tonnes of CO₂ would be saved per annum. The potential environmental impact of car-sharing is enormous.

Indeed, it would surprise many people to learn that a fully-occupied car is as environmentally friendly as public transport. If the UK is to enable maximum mobility while still aspiring to achieve its Kyoto commitments, it is essential that we acknowledge the car’s ability to provide one of the greenest forms of motorised transport – when used correctly.

Members of liftshare are currently taking 40,000 cars off the road every day,sharing about 70 million miles per year. And many of them are doing it for environmental reasons, knowing that the typical commuter who car-shares with just one other person every day saves one tonne of CO₂ a year.

Finding someone to share your journey with is very straightforward. Just register your details and your journey on the free website, liftshare.com, and then do a search for people going the same way as you. The journey-matching success rate is increasing all the time as the number of registered journeys grows, and new members are often surprised at how quickly they find someone to share with.  liftshare is a social enterprise so is not a company concerned with making money.  Any profits made are put straight back into the business.

But perhaps you’re one of the lucky ones, and are already in a position to take the even greener option of walking or cycling to work. If so, you might have been put off by the idea of doing it alone – especially in the darker months.

If you want to give it a go, but would prefer a bit of company to brighten that journey, liftshare also has a smaller but growing membership of their BikeBUDi.com and WalkBUDi.com sites, which are worth investigating. Again, membership is completely free – you just register your journey, and see if someone else is walking or riding the same way.

With any of the three sites, it only takes a few moments to sign up, and it could have more benefits than you ever imagined…!