Quick Search introduced for student car share scheme

A new Quick Search has been added to the student car-share website which allows students to
search for matches without first registering to take part in the scheme.

In order to browse potential ‘BUDi’s’ in the Take A Mate scheme, it was previously necessary to register for a membership number. Thanks to recent developments to the site, this is no longer necessary.

University Transport Manager, Graham Hine, explained, “the new Quick Search tool offers students the scenario to ‘try before you buy’ and by inputting some brief journey information, they are presented with a list of suitable car sharers whose details are anonymous and can only be contacted by email after the enquiring student has registered.”

The Take A Mate scheme was introduced in May 2009 and is now used by 437 students. The scheme offers a bespoke car-share system which the University licenses from Liftshare.com.

Sarah Graham, a fourth-year English and French student, told the _Boar_, “I signed up with my boyfriend so we automatically registered as a ‘buddy team’.

Obviously the quick search wouldn’t have been particularly useful for us, and I imagine a lot of people sign up with housemates or people they already know – but I guess if you don’t already have someone in mind it’d be good to see if there’s anyone else looking to share lifts before you bother entering all your details.”

She added, “For us the scheme’s been really useful – if you arrive between 9am and 10am it’s often really difficult to find a parking space on campus.

The car share spaces are often the only ones available at that time, so it does save a lot of searching – plus it’s really easy to sign up and doesn’t cost you anything, so there’s really no reason not to.”

Take A Mate also enables students to find those looking to walk or cycle to campus together through the BikeBUDi and WalkBUDi options.

The website also features a liftshare.com cost calculator tool to show how much money students could save by car sharing.

Hine said that the car-share scheme would help the University to achieve its objectives of Developing Sustainable Transport and reducing carbon emissions at Warwick, while helping to cutcosts for students who shared journeys and reducing commuter traffic on campus.