14th June 2001: National Lift Share Day

Whether you are a student, commuter, tourist or parent on the school run, National Lift Share Day on 14 June is about increasing awareness about lift sharing and car sharing schemes and encouraging people to see if they can benefit themselves and the environment by sharing a car.

As part of Green Transport Week and the Don't Choke Britain Campaign, National Lift Share Day aims to encourage all motorists, if only for one day, to find people going the same way as them and to share a car.

In Lancaster, where so many car users drive to work alone, continuing such actions could dramatically improve traffic flows. Liftshare.com, the organisers of the National Lift Share Day, have been campaigning to reduce the amount of traffic on UK roads for the last three years and to encourage support and use of lift sharing schemes.

In 1998 a free online service was launched to facilitate finding travel companions and sharing lifts. Membership of the national scheme now boasts over 12,000 members and is forecast to grow to 100,000 in the next 12 months. Support of traffic reducing schemes is growing across every community. In the next 20 years car traffic is predicted to grow by more than a third (DETR). Unless car use is reduced this means more traffic jams, not just in cities but in country towns too. The crush hours will spread. Driving will become even less of a pleasure. The costs to business will soar. There will be more damage to our environment and our health will suffer.

For more information contact

Facts and Figures
Traffic jams and delays cost the economy over £15 billion every year. (CBI) --
Every day there are 10 million empty seats on our roads in the UK. (DETR) --
The average speed in London is 10mph. (DETR)

In the last 10 years the proportion of journeys to school by car has nearly doubled from 16% to 29%. (DCB Campaign) --
Road transport is responsible for 90% of London¹s Air Pollution. (The Environment Agency) --
For every 40 tonne lorry delivering to a supermarket, 500 cars take away its contents. (Sustrans)
If just half of Britain's motorists left their car at home one day a week and got a lift with a companion then traffic congestion and pollution could be cut by 10%. --
A 10% reduction in the number of cars on the road would reduce traffic jams by 20%.

The Benefits of Lift Sharing --
Environmentally friendly, reducing traffic congestion and pollution, --
Saves travellers and motorists money, splitting fuel and parking costs, --
Saves travellers and motorists time, allowing direct journeys and the use of MOV lanes, --
Saves businesses money, reducing travel time and employee transport costs, --
Widens recruitment areas and allows job seekers a new way to travel to interviews, --
The need for a private car is reduced, --

Provides a solution to the lack of public transport in rural areas.



Additional Links --
Don't Choke Britain - encourages people to try an alternative to the car, to travel to and from work at least once a week during the month of June.
Green Transport Week 2000 will be in June.

Car Free Day 2000 will be in September, date to be confirmed later.

John Freeman

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