Start a car club at work / church to share the commute / journey. Better still, get your bicycle out and hop on that or just take a walk to get to where you need to be – not forgetting exploring public transport options. Basically: think before you drive. Avoid it being just you on your own going somewhere in the car this year.

If cycling or walking are really out of the question for you, that’s a shame, but then you might have a friend or neighbour who you could talk into sharing lifts with. You might want to car-share to and from work – or church. And, of course, you could always look at joining a car club, more and more of which are setting up around the country.

Research shows that short car journeys are the most damaging to environment – all that starting and stopping, accelerating and braking and all. So, try to avoid lots of short journeys and instead think about how you might combine errands and tasks into one round trip. Research also suggests that each car club car on the road replaces five privately owned vehicles. This helps to relieve parking pressure on our crowded streets and improve our local communities. A reduction in the number of cars means less pollution and congestion, helping to make places cleaner and safer. That’s got to be a good thing, don’t you think?

Related links
More on car clubs here
More on lift-sharing here

Flickr photo source