joinmyjourney is a free-to-use app enabling commuters travelling by car, bicycle or on foot to find others to share compatible journeys to work or study, either regularly, or as a one off.
Joinmyjourney has been created thanks to funding from South Gloucestershire Council’s Local Sustainable Transport Fund (LSTF), development and funding by resource efficiency specialist ecosurety, and support from North Bristol SusCom.
The journey started with an ecosurety employee called Ben, who was fed up seeing the thousands of single occupancy drivers sitting in the same traffic queues every day, all waiting to get to work at the Aztec West business park in South Gloucestershire.
Ben started an off-the-shelf car share scheme for ecosurety employees, but it just didn’t have the scale, was too complex and too limited to make a significant dent in emissions and the number of vehicles for the park as a whole.
After bemoaning the issues to an LSTF officer one day, the pair agreed that Aztec West needed a bespoke solution, one which would also appeal to walkers and cyclists. Ben took the idea back to ecosurety, and following financial support from the LSTF and his employer, development quickly started on joinmyjourney.
Thanks to the available funding, joinmyjourney is completely free to use for all businesses based at Aztec West business park in South Gloucestershire, benefiting approximately 8,000 commuters. Main benefits include fewer cars on the road, improvements in parking, lower emissions, and helping drivers save money by cutting commuting costs. Others include less stress from sitting in traffic queues, empowering commuters to cycle and walk together and the option to share sustainable and safe journeys during the winter.
After successfully launching in Aztec West, other business and educational destinations based in the West of England are coming on board in 2016 on a not-for-profit basis, with plans to eventually open it out nationally.