With transport representing as much as 28% of a typical household’s carbon footprint finding ways to reduce our mileage is seen a key to reducing our impact on climate change.

 

Given that many villagers have car trips to the rail stations and shops in the surrounding towns throughout the week it makes some sense to consider what could be done to lift-share and thereby reduce the overall number of journeys being made.

 

We have explored a number of tools for supporting lift-sharing but we have yet to find one that might work in our village context. Undeterred, we have instead decided to use the simplicity of WhatsApp groups to pilot lift-sharing. 

 

Three separate WhatsApp groups are being created to focus on different kinds of journeys:

 

• NW Commuters (peak)  - for those wishing to lift share to and from Haddenham & Thame Parkway station during peak hours. Simon Fletcher is the Admin for the group.​

• Off-peak to the station - for those wishing to lift share to and from Haddenham & Thame Parkway station during off-peak hours. Caroline Cobb is the Admin for the group.

• Shopping Trips -  for those wishing to lift share to and the shops in Thame, Aylesbury or Oxford.  Victoria Duncan is the Admin for the group.

 

The NW Commuters (peak) group has been up and running for since mid-January with a small number of villagers already signed up. In the first couple of weeks 10 separate journeys were saved - amounting to around 0.15 tonnes of carbon emissions saved.

 

If you would like to join any of the WhatsApp groups then please contact the Admin of the group directly in order to be added.

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