As the car share revolution arrives in York, STEPHEN LEWIS finds out about the pros and cons of sharing the drive to work

AT last, the perfect excuse for ducking out early from boring business meetings that run on into the evening. You don't need to invoke that dentist's appointment any more, or the need to pick the kids up from school. Just tell your boss that your car share is waiting for their lift home.

It's only one of many benefits to sharing the driving on your regular journey to and from work. Others include romance: former McArthurGlen employees Jonathan Abbot and Debbie Hudson fell in love and later married after starting to share car journeys to work to save on petrol. Or finding a new best friend to bitch about the boss with, and saving the planet.

In Norwich, where a car share scheme was launched 18 months ago, county council officials estimate that something like 500,000 car miles are saved every year. "That equates to nearly 85 metric tonnes of carbon monoxide," says Alison Sayer, of Norfolk County Council, which runs the scheme with Norwich City Council.

Add in the savings you stand to make yourself on petrol money, plus the benefits to a gridlocked York of cutting down on car journeys, and it all makes a lot of sense.

Margaret Lloyd-Hughes, college secretary at York St John College, has been car-sharing since 1999 for her regular commute to work in York from her home in Ripon.

She and her colleague, college careers information manager Liz Whitaker, who also lives in Ripon, tend to split the driving between them, two or three days a week each.

Margaret reckons she saves something like £2.50 a day in petrol alone - that's approaching £700 or £800 a year. But the benefits go far beyond that, she says.

"You've got companionship, so the journey is not as boring," she says. "Depending on the traffic, it can be quite a long journey, but we chat, we listen to Terry Wogan, and it just makes the whole journey nicer. Also, it is not as tiring, because you're not driving every day."

Jane Benson, who works in the environment and development services department at City of York Council, has also been car sharing for a couple of years.

Hers is a 36-mile round journey into York every day from Seaton Ross near Pocklington. And even though she tends to do the driving herself, she finds it makes sense to pick up her part-time colleague Krystina Page, who lives at nearby Laytham.

"It's not just saving money," she says. "It does help towards the cost of running my car, but it's the company. We've made friends out of it."

While it has always been a good idea in principle to share your car with other people making the same journey as you day in, day out, in the past it has not been that easy.

For a car share to work, people need to be travelling from the same place to near enough the same destination - and at the same time.

Now, however, City of York Council, always keen to find alternative travel solutions to cut down on congestion in the city centre, has teamed up with York University, York St John College, York Health Services Trust and liftshare.com - which runs a national web database of car sharers - to launch a York car-share scheme.

It is operated over the internet and it aims to put people making similar car journeys every day in touch with each-other so they can team up and share the costs.

Signing up to the scheme could not be easier. Simply log on to www.carshareyork.com click on "register me", then fill in an online e-form giving your personal details.

Submit it and you will be emailed back with a password which will enable you to sign on as a member.

You then simply fill in details of where you are travelling from and to, at what times, and whether you are a driver or a passenger (or both).

It doesn't matter where you live in North or East Yorkshire, the website will still be able to search for matches because it is connected to the nationwide database already operated by liftshare.com, which has 34,000 registered members around the country.

Best of all, the service is free.

Council transport planners hope that more car-sharing, taken together with other transport policies such as encouraging cycling, Park and Ride and walking to work, will help cut pollution and congestion in the city.

They point out that figures from the last census reveal 48 per cent of people in York travel to work by car - but only 5.5 per cent are passengers. That's a lot of almost empty cars.

Car sharing, says the council's principal transport planner Daniel Johnson, does not have to be used only for getting to work. It can also be great for taking the children to school, visiting friends, going to a football match or concert, doing the weekly shop.

All very well - but there is one obvious drawback. There are potential risks of meeting someone through the internet. How do you know the person you offer a lift to isn't going to turn out to be a Richard Hill-style serial killer - or at the very least someone with bad breath or BO?

Mr Johnson insists the system is "very secure". The only personal details visible to potential companions are your first name (or the name you are usually known by), your age and sex, your email address and the journey details you added. "They don't have any other personal details," he says.

Liftshare.com, which helped set up the York website, also suggests "sensible precautions" (see above panel) you should take when meeting someone for the first time - such as arranging to meet in a public place.

If such worries persist, it is also possible, says Mr Johnson, to register to travel only with somebody who works in the same company as you - or for a woman to register for women-only companions.

Jane Benson has registered with the scheme to see if she can find someone else, in addition to Krystina, who will be willing to share car journeys. She has registered only to be matched with other workers at City of York Council.

But the checks and balances built into the system make her feel secure. "I feel in control," she says.

How to share safely:

- Do not exchange home addresses with your travelling companion before meeting them

- Arrange to meet in a public place

- Tell a friend or family member who you will be travelling with, when and to where

- Make sure you show each-other your ID so you know you are travelling with the right person.

- For security reasons, it is best not to meet at your home address

- If you have any doubts about a potential travelling companion, do not travel with them

Updated: 10:39 Wednesday, March 12, 2003