Environmental Benefits of car sharing

Fewer car miles driven

By definition car sharing reduces the number of cars on the road and miles driven by filling empty seats.

Liftshare, the largest of several lift sharing organisations, often arranges over 20 million matched lifts per year.
Liftshare.com

Easing congestion

Towns and cities are increasingly being crippled with congestion. Car sharing reduces the number of commuter cars at peak times.

On the Leeds HOV lane, the journey times of those travelling in shared cars decreased by 3.5 minutes and those travelling in the non HOV lane also saw a decrease of 1.5 minutes. The buses also reported significant reductions in journey times.
Leeds City Council HOV Info Sheet

Existing environmental benefits

Estimated distance currently shared per year: 4,983,752 km or 3,096,760 Miles or 32.1 trips to the moon.

Estimated number of tonnes of CO2 saved per year: 17,060 tonnes
liftshare.com

Potential environmental benefits

60% of car drivers would be willing to share a car to work if there was someone suitable to travel with.
Reed employment agency

The average car commuter drives 19 miles a day. Cutting that by half through car sharing would save 648kg of carbon dioxide over one year, the same as that absorbed by 216 trees.
Environment Agency

If one in ten car drivers started car-sharing with others, car commuter mileage could go down by 11%, given that sharers usually drive above-average distances.

1999/01 National Travel Survey data indicates that 82 cars are used for every 100 people travelling to work by car. Of these 69 drive alone, 13 are drivers with at least one passenger, and 18 are passengers. If 10% of car commuters ( who formerly drove) were to begin car sharing, with an average car occupancy of 2.5, the number of cars would fall form 82 to 76, a 7% drop. Average journey distance to work for car sharers, relative to average for all car trips to work is 1: 1.5.
Smarter Choices Report DFT 2005.

Work place car share schemes

45% of workers would prefer to work for an employer offering an easy-to-use car share scheme. This could mean a potential reduction of 4.7 million fewer cars on the road.
Reed Employment Agency

The car sharing schemes studied in the ITP "Making car sharing and car clubs work" good practice guide, showed an average of 21% increase in multi-occupancy car journeys with no corresponding impact on other sustainable modes (see graph below).

Source: Making car sharing and car clubs work. DFT Nov 2004.

Social benefits

Car sharing achieves many of the same social benefits as car clubs, including fewer cars on the road and an improved social impact.

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