Lift Sharing

Lift sharing has been perceived and sometimes promoted as an alternative to public transport. There is potential for it to be seen as complimentary and for one to promote the other.

The challenge to public transport arises because sharing a car reduces the cost per person, whereas on public transport the total fares are usually multiplied, making the car much more attractive.

The ways in which lift sharing and public transport are complimentary are:

People who accept a lift are likely to need to use public tranpsort at one or both ends of their journey because the lift may not take them door to door. This raises the need for the passenger and driver to find locations which are accessible by public transport where they can meet up or the driver drop the passenger.
People who get a lift in one direction only may require public transport for the return.
Having accepted a lift people arrive in a place without a car and may wish to use public transport for getting around the area.
Where public transport is not available at all or is infrequent, as in rural areas, car sharing may provide the means to get to a bus route or rail station.

The above issues have been discussed with MyLifts who are working to bring lift sharing and use of public transport together into a lifestyle choice.

If MyLifts do not have a lift available then the booking system refers the enquirer to other sources of travel information including Traveline.

Within Scotland Traveline has a system under test with Liftshare.com to make public transport options available to those who visit Liftshare.com to explore the possibilities of liftsharing. The user clicks on the map for the start and end points, enters the time of travel and clicks search. The site first shows the public transport journeys and then lets uses see car share journeys.

national lift share
National Car share also provides a completely free service as well as a large number of registered users who regularly advertise lifts.