AN INNOVATIVE new car-sharing scheme was launched in York today to reduce congestion and secure the city's greener future.

The scheme is based around a new website which matches together drivers and passengers for daily and one-off trips.

City of York Council's executive member for transport, Tracey Simpson-Laing, said the scheme could be a way of avoiding the need to introduce congestion charges in the city.

She said: "We would see what the situation was elsewhere and consult carefully with residents if we ever got to that point, but hopefully the measures we are taking through the Local Transport Plan would mean we do not have to go down that route."

The scheme has been developed in a partnership involving the council, York University, York Health Services NHS Trust and York St John College.

But it is available to anyone to join, whether as an individual or through a public or private group.

It is open to members of the public who are able to register on the website any journey they are making, either to request or offer a lift.

Employees of the partner organisations can form private groups, and can choose to limit their car sharing within the private group or extend it to include anyone who wants to join the scheme.

Coun Simpson-Laing said: "The scheme is working well elsewhere. It could help people financially and it is a way of working towards tackling congestion."

Daniel Johnson, the council's principal transport planner, said: "By setting up a dedicated site for York we will increase the journey match potential for people travelling in and around the city, which will help to cut both pollution and congestion as well as offering an alternative form of transport for some journeys."

Asked about security when arranging car sharing, Mr Johnson advised anyone meeting someone for a lift to do so in a public place, let someone else know about the meeting, take a mobile phone if possible and ask for ID.

The website itself was secure to industry standards, he said.

Mr Johnson said: "It is about taking sensible precautions, the normal precautions someone takes when holding a meeting.

"I would not want to appear alarmist but neither should people be complacent, and going through all those checks people should be pretty well covered."

Mr Johnson said that Liftshare, the company running the website, runs sites for other major organisations, such as Ikea and Norwich City Council, and has not reported any incidents.

The website can be found at www.carshareyork.com.

Updated: 10:27 Tuesday, March 11, 2003