Car Share to Save Money and CO2 this June!

Somerset County Council is inviting people to sign up to save money and reduce their CO2 emissions for National Liftshare Day.

To mark the event on Tuesday 09 June 2009, anyone who registers on www.carsharesomerset.com during June will receive a travel mug as a reward.

Provided as part of Somerset County Council’s ‘Moving Forward’ campaign, Car Share Somerset is a free service which enables people to find car share partners by matching journeys together. Sharing a journey allows individuals to halve their fuel costs and CO2 emissions compared with travelling separately. It is estimated that a typical car sharer will save themselves around £1,000 and 1 tonne of CO2 per year by sharing their daily journey.*

Mike O’Dowd-Jones, Somerset County Council’s Group Manager for Strategic Planning, said:
“Car sharing cuts the number of vehicles on the road, having a positive effect on local traffic congestion and pollution levels. There are over 2,000 members and journeys registered on the Car Share Somerset website, so the chances are that someone will be going your way.”

As well as helping to match people and journeys together, the Car Share Somerset website has a cost calculator which allows individuals to work out the money and CO2 savings they could make by sharing their journeys.

The free travel mug offer is available to anyone who registers on the Car Share Somerset website www.carsharesomerset.com between 01 June 2009 and 30 June 2009. Existing Car Share Somerset members who recommend a friend to join during June will also be rewarded. All they have to do is log-into their account and click on the ‘Invite your friends to join’ button.

Car Share Somerset is a free and secure service provided by Somerset County Council to enable people to find others to car share with. It is part of the Liftshare network. Liftshare is the UK's largest implementer of car-sharing systems.

* Liftshare estimates that a typical car sharer will save themselves around £1,000 and 1 tonne of CO2 per year by sharing their daily journey.