You can help save Oxford from coming to a standstill

If you live in Oxford, you already know you’ve won one of life’s lotteries. But despite those magnificent colleges, the punts along the river, the famous dreaming spires, you probably live in dread – of making road journeys in the city.

Oxford is in danger of coming to a standstill. Although an impressive 25 percent of commuters cycle to work, road congestion risks becoming unmanageable in the near future. Numerous traffic-reduction initiatives are being suggested to stop the city from seizing up, but there are many challenges.

If you’re fed up with Oxford’s traffic jams and poor air quality, you can help!

One of the most effective ways for a city to reduce traffic levels is to increase the number of people liftsharing. Hopefully you’re already a Liftshare member yourself, but you could also spread the word amongst your networks. Maybe share this blog on social media, or post your own message about how Liftshare.com can save you hundreds of pounds a year and reduce traffic problems at the same time.

This map shows some of over 1,300 journeys going into Oxford which are already available for sharing. If you want more detail on who needs a lift into Oxford (in exchange for a contribution to fuel costs, of course) here are the 500 most recent passenger requests. Need a lift yourself? Not a problem! These are the most recent 500 trips posted by drivers who’d love your company.

Emily liftshares into Oxford every day from Woodstock; she calls it a “fantastic way to save money and reduce congestion” – and she’s right! Here are the recommended contributions for some popular routes into (or out of) Oxford:

Of course, the more passengers the driver takes, the more everyone will save!)

You could also email your Council and urge them to encourage local businesses to set up private Liftshare schemes for staff. Over 600 organisations around the UK have done this already, and are seeing the numerous benefits of reducing the number of single-occupancy vehicles their staff bring on site. Is your employer one of the organisations in Oxford that already have a Liftshare scheme? If not, why not speak to your own CEO about converting staff to liftsharing too? If the boss needs a bit of motivation, you could suggest they put their journey in the Liftshare calculator and see how much they could save on their own journey!