These examples of existing car share projects can be divided into closed and open examples. This is defined by whether the scheme is open for any member of the public to access and join, or if it is restricted to certain people such as employees of one company.
National schemes for regular or occasional journeys
Several operators provide national schemes which will help car sharers find matches for both regular journeys, such as commuting to work, as well as occasional long distance journeys such as seeing friends in other parts of the country. These sites often have specialised sections for large events such as festivals or football matches.
The largest free site is Liftshare.com. A typical Liftshare member saves themselves around £1,000 and 1 tonne of CO2 per year by sharing their daily journey rather than driving alone.
Other car share websites operate locally, nationally and internationally.
Workplace car share schemes
Workplace travel plans are becoming popular among employers tackling on site parking problems. Increasingly, new developments are being approved by local authorities, subject to a travel plan being submitted with the application. Alternatively, if a workplace parking levy is raised, a company may be incentivised to encourage other transport modes among its employees. In return for their efforts, there are benefits of staff adopting alternate travel modes to the single-occupancy private car, including the health and motivational benefits of walking and cycling or the social and financial advantages of car sharing. Employers have seen how car sharing can increase punctuality and attendance and can help with staff recruitment and retention.
Regional schemes
Many county councils are looking beyond the set up of workplace and school travel plans to create regional car share schemes. Each scheme has its own localised identity and marketing but is often linked to a wider website of national car sharers. Incentives to car sharers differ between schemes, examples include discounts with local bus operators or free city centre parking. Parking wardens are often used to monitor those using car share parking bays fraudulently.
Rural car sharing
Car sharing is particularly important in rural and other areas with poor public transport provision and a good sense of community. Local residents can travel together for shopping trips, the school run or the commute to work; in some areas, van pooling – see below – is becoming more popular.
Van pooling
A further category of car sharing is van pooling where a group of (usually) colleagues share a multi-occupancy vehicle to travel to work together each day. The car share operator supplies the vehicles, employees share the costs of running it and the employer sometimes subsidises it.
