Could you car share?

After spotting somebody on Twitter complaining they'd had to pay £4.50 for a 10 mile bus journey "would've been cheaper to drive - grumble", I wondered just how many motorists that passed the bus stop would have been going to that part of town, the unhappy Tweeter finally got to.

Take that thought a stage further and if you travel to a fairly busy industrial area or shopping area to work, how many of your 'neighbours' live on your regular commute run?

Car sharing's not for everyone, but if you were able to offer someone nearby a lift in of a morning or evening ( as long as you're both flexible, it wouldn't have to be every journey , then you could both halve your commuting fuel costs.

That's worth a little ground work sourcing prospective sharers isn't it?

If you work for a largish employer, you could start by asking your co-workers if they live on or beyond your route?

To make such a car sharing scheme a success, it's important to lay some simple ground rules like:

Last time to notify the driver if you're not going to be making the journey. Nothing worse than waiting for someone who doesn't turn up. (that goes for the driver too).

Taking your turn with the driving (if that's feasible).

Being prepared to be a few minutes flexible on departure times (at both ends of the working day)

Being prepared to trial it and if it doesn't suit, then saying so openly.

Have a look online as well. There are a few journey sharing websites round - particularly when the travel concerns longer distances or events like exhibitions, conferences, concerts and sporting events.

These sites have some useful guidelines for both driver and passenger including a reminder of common sense etiquette, that will make your car-sharing experience one you'll want to repeat.

photo credit: greene connections

US Road crisis as commuters come out of recession

With reports suggesting that America's financial crisis is being solved, the road out of post-recession is causing problems of its own - on the roads themselves.

With more and more motorists returning to using their cars, traffic queues and jams are becoming the norm once again, and that's causing a whole lot of wastage according to a 2010 Urban Mobility Report.

It reports that Americans had to travel 4.8 billion hours more due to congestion and had to fill an extra 3.9 gallons of fuel at the rate of $115 billion.

That translates roughly to an average motorist spending a whopping extra 34 hours and $808 in traffic in 2009.

Of course some areas are worse than others - the worst affected were motorists in Washington DC and Chicago who spent an average of 70 hours in peak traffic losing $1738 and wasting 57 gallons of fuel.

The study claims that with more and more drivers taking to the roads, the emphasis has got to be on providing a better infrastructure including more public transport, tolls and mass commuting facilities.


One glimmer of hope was the finding that public transport networks like train and bus saved 785 million hours of wasted time spent in traffic. Clearly where the smart money was then.

Read the full report at Green Packs.

If you're interested, you can read how one commuter in Derbyshire, UK has found delight in various public transport ticket deals for his daily 40 mile commute - read more here

photo credit: nicholas whitaker