The congestion charge – coming to a town near you…

We all know driving is an expensive business but, unless you live in London or Durham, at least you don’t have to pay a congestion charge… yet!

Yes, 15 years after London introduced its notorious charge, the historic city of Bath is considering following suit. Exeter is mulling it over too. Oh, and so is Reading.

To be honest, given the pressure on councils to reduce the ever-increasing traffic jams and pollution in built-up areas, it’s a safe bet that others will look at introducing a congestion charge over the coming months and years too.

At Liftshare, we’ll always celebrate an idea that reduces impact on the environment. But we also know that life is expensive enough already. In London the charge is £10 a day, but even if smaller cities only charged £2, people who need to drive to their workplace every day could end up spending an additional £500 a year doing so.

We can’t do anything about congestion charges, but we can help you offset the cost. By liftsharing with just one other person, you’d probably save enough every day to (more than) cover your congestion charge – which you’d split with your liftsharer anyway. Take those three towns currently considering a congestion charge…

• Drive someone from Chippenham to Bath and back, and they’ll contribute £3.60. (It’d cost you £7.20 if you drove alone!)
• Share your Budleigh Salterton-Exeter return journey with one passenger and you’ll save £3.40 (why would anyone want to spend £6.80 driving alone?!)
• Just giving someone a one-way lift into Reading from Camberley will save you £2.00

(If you didn’t take a passenger, you’d have no one to natter to – AND that single trip would cost you £4)

You can work out how much you could save on your commute with our Savings Calculator. Then don’t wait for the congestion charge to be introduced – start sharing and start saving today!