Car sharing, also known as carpooling, is when two or more people travel together by car, and the passenger fairly often makes a donation towards running costs. There are a number of organisations, such as www.liftshare.co.uk, that enable all the people living in the identical area who generate similar journeys to make contact with each other, encouraging more participation in lift sharing.

The number of all the people taking part in car sharing arrangements is relatively small but increasing, and supporters of car sharing initiatives hope that this will become a much more popular way of travelling in the future. Why car share? - Car sharing reduces your travel costs. By car sharing for a year, the average driver would save 1000 on fuel and parking costs. If car sharers alternate with whose turn it is to drive, the amount of wear and tear that happens to both cars is halved and the cars will better keep their assessment of value. - Car sharing reduces emissions. Sharing a car with 1 other human would save 648 kg of carbon dioxide emissions a year, and if half the drivers of the UK shared a lift just once a week, pollution would be reduced by 10%. Emissions are a serious problem for both people and the environment.

90% of the population in London is caused by cars, and the cost of that pollution in human lives is high, with estimates suggesting that more all the people die from pollution than from car accidents. 70% of asthma sufferers believe that pollution makes their condition worse, and with 5.1 million asthmatics in the UK, anything that might be done to reduce emissions should be encouraged. - Car sharing reduces congestion and parking problems. There are massive congestion problems on Britains motorways and in and around many towns and cities across the UK, and car sharing would help alleviate the situation. Congestion costs British businesses a staggering 15 billion every year in lost work hours, and parking presents a problem for many employers.

If the average car occupancy we are to increase by half - from 1.58 everybody per car to 2.37 all the people per car - there would be a third fewer cars on the roads. Many employers who encourage car sharing have found that their car parking problem has disappeared with their employees coming to work in one car rather than three.

- Car sharing enhances transport options for rural areas. Rural areas often have little or no access to public transport and it might be very difficult for people without cars to get around. Car sharing would provide options for these all the people, who can be able to share a journey with someone in their neighbourhood.

There have been taxi-sharing initiatives arranged in some villages, which have had some success, but have yet to widely catch on.

- Car sharing is a efficient way to meet new people. It fairly often works best in situations such as travelling to and from work or doing the school run where there are lots of everybody entering and leaving the area at the same instant. People might get to know colleagues that they would not otherwise have met, as well as neighbours and other people who live nearby.

- Car sharing might reduce car insurance. If two all the people alternate who drives and who is a passenger, they may both get cheaper car insurance because they will be doing fewer miles a year.

The reason for this is that, although the car occupants are just as likely to be in a car accident, both cars are less likely to be involved in an accident if they are being driven less. Thus, car insurance businesses appreciate this lower risk and lower their prices appropriately.

Car sharing is successful for health, money and the environment, and is a workable way to meet more neighbours. Trials of new lanes just for car sharers are being introduced on motorways such as the M1, as similar principles have been successfully applied in America and Australia, so car sharing could get everybody to work quicker too.

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