Car Share (Save A Fortune Slash Your Emissions)
OK, it sounds a bit of a challenge: the hassle, the planning, the feeling of being reliant on someone else – or them on you. But by all accounts, deciding to car-share can be a really enjoyable experience, not just for the social benefits but the financial ones. And those nice ‘I’m doing my bit’ for planet earth vibes.
Here’s the deal.
Private cars produce 10% of the UK’s total CO2 emissions. More than 80% of people who commute to work by car do so on their own – even though most of them live in the same towns and villages as many of their colleagues.
Two people, each with a car, can alternately leave one or other car at home and get a lift with the other. In one fell swoop petrol costs and harmful emissions are halved. Congestion is also eased – reducing journey times. Even better if three or four club together.
The average UK commuter drives 8.5 miles (13.7 km) to work each day at a cost of £2·04, a cost that can be halved through car sharing. That’s a saving of £240 per driver per year. At the same time, the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions would be reduced by 4%.
(We got most of the above information from a very handy piece by Richard Ghail on the BBC website which you can read here. )
Want to go Generous on your journeys to work? You can sign-up to start car-sharing for free.
The best-known organisation is called Liftshare and they report that the number of people sharing cars has soared since petrol prices have leapt.
In fact, never mind about the £240 saving estimated by Richard Ghail, Liftshare estimates that the average commuter can save around £1,000 a year by car sharing. Their site can also be used by non-drivers to find a lift, a great tool for anyone looking at improving their transport options.
So go Generous and Start Car-Sharing on your journey to work here.
Join the fray by signing in.
10 Oct 2006
We have a different sort of car sharing arrangement – we gave up our car but there are the odd occasions when I can’t actually get to somewhere by public transport (speaking somewhere in deepest Warwickshire on a Sunday morning…) so 3 of my wonderful friends have put me on the insurance for their cars. About once a fortnight on average, I borrow a car.
What we found was that the very fact of having a car sitting outside meant that we were much more likely to use it, and not really to think of the alternatives. But getting rid of the car, borrowning a vehicle (rather than sharing lifts, which didn’t work for us, except occasionally) and orientating our life around access to public transport (living near the station so we can get the train easily) and so on meant a much more significant change. Life is possible (possibly even better!) without a car! Yo!
Loughborough, GB , 30 Dec 2006
We have a car, we need it to carry lots of stuff – impractical by public transport.
But our friends in the next road had 2 cars and only occasionally needed both at once. We often shared lifts anyway but when one of their cars died, we insured them on ours. They’ve only used it once in 6 months which proves something!
It even reduced the cost of the insurance (how does that work?).