Aylsham to Norwich commuters have the opportunity to cut travelling costs and reduce CO2 emissions as well as reducing the stress of driving.
More than 90 per cent of car journeys have only one person in the vehicle. Imagine what that means in terms of empty seats travelling from Aylsham to Norwich every day or to other destinations in or beyond Norfolk. The solution: Car Sharing.
If everyone who could, car shared, it could make as much as a five per cent reduction in the UK’s total emissions and potential savings are estimated to average £1,000/year. The challenge is to find people with similar travel patterns and the internet offers a wide and simple means to link up.
LiftShare is one of a number of websites that enables car sharing. Recently publicised on BBC’s Morning Live show, LiftShare is popular with 700,000 users worldwide and tens of thousands in the UK.
Mainly for commuting but also for irregular and one-off trips, it matches people to journeys, and they either make a contribution to costs or rotate the driving.
Already, some Aylsham to Norwich commuters have signed up to Liftshare, so the potential is there. If 500 Aylsham residents travel to various parts of Norwich each day and we could find each other efficiently and effectively, the financial and environmental savings are clear.
There are some risks to meeting and travelling with strangers, but messaging other registered members in advance is possible as well as asking to see insurance, number plate details, checking MOTs etc while applying other precautions like keeping a friend or family member informed.
So, car-sharing is very different from hitch-hiking.
Cars produce about 15 per cent of the UK’s emissions. A shocking number, but one that can be easily and quickly reduced.
Walking and the use of bikes and e-bikes for short journeys is an obvious area and taking the bus can really help reduce our footprint too. Electric cars are slowly growing in popularity too though remain expensive, but it’s possible to cut our carbon footprint for travel without spending anything. Actually making a saving!
So, rather than sign up on different apps and miss each other, let’s all sign up to LiftShare and see if we can identify fellow travellers from the town.
