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Northern Ireland Regional Development Minister Conor Murphy
has urged employers to set up car share schemes to ease congestion
in busy towns and cities across the north.
Speaking as he launched Car Share Day 2008 at Queen's
University, the minister praised the University for its efforts
in joining forces with Travelwise NI to encourage more
commuters to car-share. The Minister said - "Since Queen's
set up its Car-Share Club, it already has 144 registered members
and has saved 62,546 miles of travel - equating to £6,255
and 19 tonnes of carbon dioxide.
"The University's proactive approach to sustainable
travel is evidenced through its implementation of an institutional
Travel Plan in 2005. The Travel Plan aims to promote all forms
of sustainable travel of which car sharing is a key component.
Not only is the support of Queen's University, as a major
local employer, extremely important, but it will also help
to alert more young people, in particular, to the growing
importance of sustainable transport in today's society.
"Commuters are spending more and more time in their
vehicles due to traffic congestion, so there is a real and
urgent need to reduce the volume of cars on our roads. This
event aims to show that car-sharing can help cut traffic levels
and journey times as well as reduce the negative environmental
and financial impact of car travel. I would strongly encourage
employers and commuters to take advantage of these benefits
and set-up their own car-share schemes."
Queen's University President and Vice-Chancellor, Professor
Peter Gregson said he hoped the launch would boost student
and staff participation levels in the car-share scheme.
Queen's Students' Union President John Roger said that the
case for car-sharing was very convincing and that students
needed to be persuaded of its benefits to encourage higher
participation levels.
For further information on the Travelwise Car-Share Scheme
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Tel: 0845 378 0908 or Click
Here
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