Liftshare welcomes the introduction of HOV lane
21/03/2008

liftshare.com, operators of the UK's largest network, yesterday welcomed the opening of a new HOV lane between Bradford and Leeds. The lane which is being opened by Transport Secretary Ruth Kelly is aimed at helping drivers to cut their journey times and their carbon footprints.  


The £5.33 million, 1.7-mile lane, built by the Highways Agency, links the southbound M606 near Bradford to the eastbound M62 towards Leeds. It is open to cars and taxis with two or more occupants, as well as buses and coaches, and bypasses the notoriously congested section where the two motorways merge. The new lane will save road users an average of six to eight minutes per journey - 30-40 minutes per week for regular commuters.  

liftshare's founder, Ali Clabburn explained: 

“We support any measure which encourages people to take up carsharing and certainly HOV lanes have proved very successful in other areas. I would like to emphasize however that it is vitally important that schemes like this are communicated and policed effectively. It needs to be made clear to people the huge benefits for them by carsharing in order for this lane to work effectively and not for it to be seen as a just another road widening exercise.” 

There are currently 217,000 registered carsharers on the UK liftshare network and between them they are saving more than 50 million car miles and 16,000 tonnes of CO2 each year by sharing their journeys. Registering a journey at www.Liftshare.com is free and it only takes around 10 minutes find and contact matches. The system tells the user of suitable matches using any form of transport, leaving it up to them to make contact through a secure message centre, via email or by telephone, and arrange to the share both the journey and the costs of travel.

Comments

There are currently no comments posted for this article.

Comments are temporarily disabled.

Other news stories