Wednesday 14th June 2006, saw National Liftshare Day during which the Council encouraged drivers across the borough to take part.

Up to half of commuters say they would be willing to share a car if they found the right person to travel with, which is why Hounslow Council, along with 11 other London Boroughs in west and south London, has teamed up with the UK's largest car sharing scheme, to create www.ShareTheCar.org.

The site is free to anyone over the age of 16 and is a database of people who would like to share their journey as they are either travelling around with empty seats or who can’t or don’t want to use a car.

The initiative encourages drivers to offer one of the 38 million empty seats on the UK’s roads everyday to someone and raise the average car occupancy.

By raising the average car occupancy from 1.6 to two people, it is expected that CO2 emissions and congestion can be significantly reduced.

Using www.ShareTheCar.org can help any company set up their own private liftshare scheme for a small annual charge. This will link in to a community of car sharers that in effect share the same London and national database of users.

The campaign to encourage commuters to sign up to the scheme will continue throughout the month of June.