The theoretical potential for organised carpooling in the U.K.

Transportation study data for a provincial U.K. city has been analysed to determine the latent potential for organised carpooling. Analysis was restricted to car‐users who made at least one peak work trip. Results show that a reduction of about seven percent of cars used for peak work travel could be achieved with origin/destination matching within a 15 minute time band. An increased time band of 30 minutes would approximately double the pooling potential. Although these results show carpooling potential to be below that achieved in U.S.A. cities, it is felt that as part of a traffic restraint policy, carpooling offers a low cost method of reducing peak congestion and transport fuel consumption.