National liftshare Day is here!
14/06/2004

To highlight National liftshare Day, Monday 14th June, the Liberal Democrats have revealed new official figures showing the extent to which higher levels of car occupancy could make serious inroads into reducing the amount of traffic on our roads.

Lib Dem analysis of Parliamentary Answers reveals:

  • A 50% increase in car occupancy (from 1.58 per car to 2.37 per car) would result in a 33% reduction in traffic (from 450bn km to 300bn km);
  • A 10% increase in car occupancy would result in a 9% reduction in traffic;
  • Since 1997 average car occupancy has fallen, creating 129 million new car journeys (one additional car journey for every 127 previously).

Commenting, Paul Marsden MP, Liberal Democrat Shadow Transport Minister, said:

"National liftshare Day is a welcome reminder to all car users to think about sharing journeys. Car sharing is sociable, saves money, and reduces congestion and pollution. It is a win-win situation.

"Yet the Government has given little consideration to how we can best use these 'soft' measures to use our road space more effectively. And the concept of liftsharing has not been considered at all.

"Alistair Darling has conceded that traffic will continue to rise and with fewer people choosing to share there will be even more cars on our roads. The Government must make reducing congestion a real priority and the promotion of car sharing should play an important role."

Ali Clabburn, Managing Director of liftshare, added:

"This research has highlighted the results that can be achieved by increasing vehicle occupancy figures in the UK. Company travel surveys show that around 50% of commuters would share a car if they could find someone suitable to travel with.

"A small amount of investment in supporting car-sharing could result in dramatic reductions in congestion and pollution across the UK."

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