joinmyjourney reduces cars, congestion, parking issues and encourages sustainable business park travel
joinmyjourney is a free-to-use website for commuters travelling by car, bicycle or on foot to find others to share journeys to work, either regularly, or as a one off. joinmyjourney particularly enables workers within different business park organisations to find people with similar commutes. A joinmyjourney Apple, Android and Windows app to accompany the website is due to launch this Spring.
Benefits include fewer cars on the road, lower emissions¹, and helping drivers save money by cutting commuting costs. Others include less stress sitting in traffic queues, improved confidence from increased outdoor exercise and the option to share sustainable and safe journeys during the winter. There is also anecdotal evidence that journey sharing improves employee punctuality.
joinmyjourney is launched by resource efficiency specialist ecosurety thanks to funding from South Gloucestershire Council’s Local Sustainable Transport Fund (LSTF), with support from North Bristol SusCom.
The scheme, owned by ecosurety, was recently recognised by the TravelWest awards, and is now open to shared business sites across the UK.
James Piper, commercial director at ecosurety, says, “ecosurety wholeheartedly supports sustainability. Our decision to create a scheme for businesses underlines our commitment to the environment, as well as our core value of striving to continuously eradicate all forms of unnecessary waste.”
He continues: “joinmyjourney developed out of the need to find a features-lite solution that was free-to-use for employees, where they could efficiently and easily connect with other interested journey sharers between different businesses.”
How it works
Users can specify the start point (via postcode) with the destination business park or place of work pre-configured, then using an interactive map identify potential sharers on the route and their preferred mode of transport (walk, cycle or car). Users then choose to message other users who most closely fit their needs, to plan their journey share, and the route can be easily amended if the default route doesn’t match the user’s preferred journey.
Once registered, users can also specify other key information, such as the days and times that they usually travel and state their preferences - i.e smokers, non-smokers, or to only share with somebody of the same sex, etc.
Verity Heal, LSTF project manager at South Gloucestershire Council, says, “joinmyjourney is a great example of how we are working with the business community to help resolve shared challenges. This is one of many schemes that we are delivering across the area to help take cars off the road.”
Ann O’Driscoll, from North Bristol SusCom, a group of employers that promotes sustainable transport to 40,000 employees and 30,000 students, says, “Travelling more sustainably can have a dramatic impact on congestion levels, commuting costs, emissions and parking problems. Joining forces with somebody else who wants to walk or cycle can also be very empowering, especially in the winter when it’s dark before and after work. Using more active forms of transport can also improve fitness and reduce stress.”
Organisations or business centres can register interest at joinmyjourney.org.
In the future, revenues from the scheme will go into a not-for-profit fund, to ensure it is able to cover its costs. Organisations that meet certain criteria might also be able to use the scheme for free in the first instance.
¹ Outline emissions savings data by users could be provided to participating organisations. This data is based on calculations using average emissions from an averagely-sized domestic vehicle.
About ecosurety
Founded in 2003, ecosurety is the UK’s leading resource efficiency specialist with end to end services including environmental compliance, waste and resource management, training and intelligence reporting.With more than 1,000 customers including The Co-operative Group, Innocent, BSkyB and Britvic,ecosurety is leading change in approaches to waste and compliance throughout the UK, driving ever greater efficiencies of resource use.
Committed to reducing the environmental impact of UK businesses while improving performance, ecosurety is targeting to influence over one million tonnes of waste by 2020.
About the LSTF
The Local Sustainable Transport Fund (LSTF) was launched in September 2010. The fund allows local transport authorities outside London to "build on their plans for sustainable travel measures that support economic growth and reduce carbon".
The West of England councils; South Gloucestershire, Bristol, Bath and North East Somerset, and North Somerset and were awarded nearly £30 million by the Department for Transport from the fund on two separate but integrated projects where employers, schools, colleges and universities encouraged people to try different ways of travelling. This funding was matched with £40 million from other partners.
Packages of measures delivered through the Local Sustainable Transport Fund are focussed on; supporting economic growth by reducing congestion, reducing carbon through greater use of sustainable alternatives, delivering improvements in public health through an increase in active travel, improved infrastructure and increasing transport safety. For more information visit www.travelwest.info/LSTF
About North Bristol SusCom
North Bristol SusCom is a group of major employers, located in North Bristol, promoting sustainable commuting for our 40,000 employees and 30,000 students. We are working together to influence and improve local transport provisionto combat traffic congestion and reduce the impact upon our environment.
Employers involved in North Bristol SusCom include Airbus, Allianz, Atkins, Babcock, Boeing, Bristol& Bath Science Park, Cavendish Nuclear, ecosurety,Filton 20 Business Park, GKN Aerospace, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, John Lewis, MOD, NHS Blood & Transplant, North Bristol NHS Trust, NVIDIA, The Mall at Cribbs Causeway and UWE (University of the West of England).
This press release is presented without editing for your information only.
Full Disclosure Statement: The GREEN (LIVING) REVIEW received no compensation for any component of this article.
Photo: From left, Stephanie Housty, marketing manager at ecosurety, Verity Heal, LSTF project manager at SGC, Ben Luger, marketing communictions specialist at ecosurety and Richard Drew, LSTF business engagement manager
