Journey sharing website seeks to cut congestion at business parks

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

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

A new website designed to help business parks and organisations cut congestion and traffic queues has been launched.

Joinmyjourney is a free-to-use website aimed at commuters travelling by car, bicycle or on foot who want to find others to share journeys to work, either regularly, or as a one off.

The site aims to enable workers within different business park organisations to find people with similar commutes. A joinmyjourney Apple, Android and Windows app to accompany the website will be launched soon.

The service has been launched by resource efficiency company ecosurety. Founded in 2003, ecosurety offers services including environmental compliance, waste and resource management, training and intelligence reporting. Its customers include The Co-operative Group, Innocent, BSkyB and Britvic.

Ecosurety’s commercial director James Piper said: “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. 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.”

The scheme has received funding from South Gloucestershire Council’s Local Sustainable Transport Fund (LSTF). Verity Heal, the council’s LSTF project manager at South Gloucestershire Council, said: “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.”

The website has also received support from North Bristol SusCom, a group of employers that promotes sustainable transport to 40,000 employees and 30,000 students. Employers involved 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).

Ann O’Driscoll, from SusCom said: “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.”

Future revenues from the scheme will go into a not-for-profit fund to ensure the website 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.