Sussex Eco Awards 2010: Judging begins!
Judging is currently underway for the 125 individuals and businesses nominated in the 2010 Sussex Eco-Awards. Here is what reporter Sarah Lewis-Hammond from the Brighton Argus newspaper has to say about Catch-A-Ride:
Like many of the greatest ideas, Catch-A-Ride is so fundamentally simple it makes you wonder why you never thought of it yourself. This cunning little website performs a brilliant function: putting people with empty cars together with car-less travellers, like a transport dating site for the ecologically sound. Catch-A-Ride allows drivers going in a certain direction to advertise for passengers. That way the only of the car saves on petrol costs, the traveller saves on transport costs, and we all save on the fact that the same amount of fuel has been used to transport more than one person.
Website manager Juliet Grieg got the idea from a German friend – lift-sharing is hugely popular in western Europe but never quite caught on in the UK, so her plan was to create a site where like-minded people could interact with each other and get used to using this vital fuel-saving method.
While the idea has been popular with those who know about it, it hasn’t been all smooth sailing. Juliet explains, “The biggest challenge I’ve had to overcome is finding ways to advertise my website to a wider audience. Catch-A-Ride is completely not-for-profit, it doesn’t make any money at all, so obviously I had to find ways of advertising that wouldn’t cost me very much.”
Fortunately Catch-A-Ride caught the eye of several high profile websites like Ethical Junction and Act on CO2, as well as being featured in the Brighton Green Pages, and that exposure really helped get things off the ground. Juliet says, “Catch-A-Ride has developed from having a handful of members to hundreds in just a few years. In a few years from now I hope there’ll be thousands of people using it to share their car journeys, save resources and reduce their carbon footprints.”
