City Car Share

If you live in a city, car share or life share schemes may be a good option. There are many types of car share schemes, from people coming together to share rides through to cooperative groups who own and run vehicles.

Car share schemes take many forms

Owning and running a car long ago ceased to become an aspiration and is now seen as being a right. While the convenience of running a car is undoubted, so too is the negative impact that traditional fossil fuel burning cars have on the environment. Part of living a greener and more environmentally friendly lifestyle involves looking at ways that we can reduce our carbon footprint. Finding ways not to run a car is a major step that we each can take. This sounds like a simple solution, however for many people this is just not a feasible option.

It is still possible to reduce your carbon footprint, even if you cannot live without a car. There are many ways of doing this. These include using public transportation when it is available, using a bicycle for short distances, considering hybrid cars or vehicles that use alternative fuels, and investigating city car share schemes.

A car share scheme simply allows people to share transportation. Whether this is through a cooperative who club together to buy a car, through an organization that offers cars available for short term hire or simply a means of allowing people to take the same journey at a similar hour every day to get together to share transport, the principle remains the same. The common feature is finding means to reduce cars on the road while still offering a high degree of convenience to the individual.

This works particularly well in cities. City car share and lift share schemes often include the use of special road lanes, that are only available to cars with more than one person in it. Car share schemes can be formal arrangements where agreements are drawn up for all participating parties or they can be informal schemes that are put into place occasionally.

There are a number of benefits of city car share schemes. Even the most casual car sharing or lift sharing arrangement will result in the reduction of miles driven. This means that less emissions are produced and therefore there is a decrease in the amount of greenhouse gas released into the environment. In a city, this has the added benefit of providing cleaner air and reducing the air pollution and smog that is a problem in many large cities.

Another significant benefit is that a reduction in miles driven in a car will save money. People gathering together to share daily trips to work or running a car within a cooperative will find that their car gas bills are reduced.

Car share schemes are not without their disadvantages. There are compromises that need to be made. This includes the fact that members have less freedom than if they were running their own car. It would not always be possible, for instance, to leave work early or to go on a spontaneous day trip, as there are other people to consider.

Car share schemes, from lift shares to car ownership cooperatives, can be a great solution. They won't be perfect for everyone, however for many, the compromises that need to be made are greatly outweighed by the benefits.

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