Bilingual, nationwide scheme for Wales
06/11/2009

Sustainable travel in Wales achieved a milestone this week, as the final piece of the jigsaw was put in place for a nationwide, bilingual car-sharing scheme.

Until now, the country's car-share websites have been only partly bilingual, and there was no scheme covering the north of the country. But on 5 November, a scheme was launched for north Wales and, supported by the Welsh Assembly Government, the four regions of Wales have had their sites - which all link together - made completely bilingual.

There are already 8,500 members on the Welsh Liftshare network, and the four regional schemes all work together so that, if a member is unable to find a suitable car-sharer within their own group, they can do an advanced search of the entire network.

"Car-sharing is one of the greenest forms of travel and contributes towards reducing single occupancy car travel and congestion particularly during peak periods," said Wales’ deputy first minister, Ieuan Wyn Jones, as the scheme went live in Conwy.

"As well as being fun and potentially saving members many hundreds of pounds a year, we hope it will encourage even more people to give it a go."

"The Welsh Assembly Government is really leading the way in providing all its citizens with access to a public, bi-lingual, online car-share scheme," said Louis Clabburn, Liftshare Commercial Manager. "The websites will help many thousands of people across Wales save money, reduce pollution and congestion, improve mobility and enjoy more sociable journeys."

Toni, a member from Swansea, said: "I found a match travelling between Cardiff and Swansea very quickly. The benefit of using the scheme is that I could be matched with someone of the same age and gender as me, so we have more in common. I don't drive myself so was pleasantly surprised to see I could sign up as a passenger only."

The four linked websites making up the nationwide scheme are:
www.swwitch2share.com
www.northwalescarshare.com
www.sewtacarshare.com
www.midwalescarshare.com

Comments

There are currently no comments posted for this article.

Comments are temporarily disabled.

Other news stories