Your comments on car sharing

[SamApplegate]

What does everyone think about the idea of car sharing?

It's not a new idea, it's been around for years, and a simple Google search reveals many car sharing websites:

www.liftshare.co.uk
www.nationalcarshare.co.uk
www.mylifts.com
www.freewheelers.co.uk

With the obvious advantages of cutting not only the cost of your commute or one off journey, but also congestion and pollution.

It doesn’t come without disadvantages: flexibility, security, reliability.

But with the recent increase in fuel prices, together with more and more companies adopting flexible working hours, surely this is the future?

There is clearly huge potential here: an eBay style national database of users, with feedback, and exact times of travel (goes towards solving some of the problems mentioned above).

Although some of the current schemes are relatively successful, what is stopping them going to the next level?

In an idea where success is highly dependent on the sheer number of users, I feel the problem lies in creating a large enough database for the idea to work.

Or perhaps I’m missing something obvious?

Would you consider car sharing?

Have you heard of car sharing?

Perhaps you already car share?

Thanks in advance for all your comments.

[Jayne]

Hi,

I don't like it much, I think cleaner fuel should be what they should be looking at. I don't like driving when someone else is in the car, rattle on on your ears when your trying to drive. Plus I like my car tidy inside and when my husband drives mine, he messes it up and I find crisp packets everywhere. I think i'd rather use the bus than share, but busses use more fuel than anything and where it takes 20 mins for a journey in a car, it can take an hour on the bus! Also busses don't start running until 5.30am, so would be no good for me!

Best Wishes

Jayne

[Russ]

I'm not very green when it comes to cars.If I wanted to share a lift with someone I would use the bus or the train. My car is about the only place I can go (other than the loo) and get complete peace and quite..

The problem is that even though the cost of traveling by car has increased, no significant improvements have been made to public transport to encourage people to use it and the cost difference is only marginal (sometimes in the favour of the car!).

What would be the revenue stream with a car pool website? I'm sure most people that car pool network with friends, neighbours and colleagues? If you charge people to register it will probably deter them from registering... Are their advertising possibilities or even government initiatives???? I don't think so??

[Enigma121]

Humm,

I notice that these services don't make any claims about the sort of person you might pick up.

It's basically worse than picking up a hitchhiker, as at least in the case of a hitchhiker you get a chance to look at them and drive off if required.

Think that the push should be towards more efficient cars. There are a range of Hybrids out there that allow you to go twice as far on the petrol you use now. Sounds like a better idea to me.

[SamApplegate]

Some interesting points...

Jayne:
I guess I overlooked the fact that a lot of people spend thousands on their cars, and don't want them messing up / strangers using them. Perhaps even if your weekly fuel bill be chopped in half?

Appointdirect:
In terms of revenue, I think liftshare works with local authorities, and has approx 90,000 registered users nationwide. I agree with you on charging new users when they sign up. For the idea to work it'll need to have as many users as possible, it would be a complete flop to deter any potential users with an initial payment.

I was thinking more along the lines of a text message based service. Free to register with a text message, and a small charge (perhaps 50p) when a match is found. Then remove the user from the database. (They can always sign up again if they want more sharing partners).

Although the main problem with this, is people are very reluctant to sign up to any sort of text messaging scheme, as they are afraid they'll get regular texts costing them money.

Enigma121:
You've highlighted my exact point mentioned in my first post regarding security. There are a number of things which can be done to partially solve this problem. Feedback system, travel with more than one person, only match with people at the same company as yourself.

Thanks for your comments.