Case studies - University of Warwick

The University of Warwick has a master plan to increase its main campus in Coventry by 40% between 2005 and 2015.  Key to the development is the introduction of a Green Travel Plan to manage the potential increase of traffic in and around the campus and to promote more sustainable modes of transport. The Plan identifies single-occupancy cars as a mode of transport that the university aims to reduce, not only to alleviate traffic congestion but to help reduce CO2 emissions.

The university chose liftshare to provide and manage its own branded scheme – WarwickShare - which they launched in May 2008.

Their publicity, on a minimal budget, included lamp-post & car park banners, ID cards and messages in all staff pay slips. Although it was launched with no financial incentives, one of its greatest selling points has been that car-sharers have clearly marked priority parking spaces in all of the campus's car parks.

Awareness of benefits is very important. They have regular updates and news on the intranet, leaflets inserted in every induction pack for new employees, regular leafleting and advertising at strategic car parks and ad hoc promotions and incentives advertised on the intranet.

As a result, in just over six months of its launch, WarwickShare had nearly 350 members registered, with more than 150 of them actively car-sharing. And the university now plans to expand the scheme to include students.

WarwickShare has attracted local media attention and interest from public organisations in the area who are also considering introducing formal car-share schemes. In May 2009, the university's Travel Plan was also ranked among the best in the UK, coming 2nd out of 64 institutions.

Graham Hine, the university's transport manager, said;
“We are delighted at the initial success of WarwickShare, and it proves that introducing a formal car-share scheme does not need a large budget or financial incentive. We had a very limited budget to launch the scheme and key to this was the capital investment and ongoing cost for a suitable system.

“Following much research, we chose liftshare because it offered a cost-effective and flexible solution and it was clear that they had experience of working with the public sector.”