MORE Scots commuters than ever are sharing their journey to work with colleagues to cut costs and car emissions according to new figures released ahead of National Liftshare Week.

There was an 80 per cent increase in just five years following the popularising of car sharing by comedians James Cordon and Peter Kay.

Cordon’s Carpool Karaoke sees celebrities join him for a sing-a-long in a car while he drives in one of America’s high-occupancy vehicle lanes, while Kay wrote and starred in BAFTA award-winning Peter Kay’s Car Share, a sitcom which saw him play a supermarket worker who finds love while driving a colleague to work.

National Liftshare Week begins tomorrow and figures released by the UK’s biggest car-sharing community liftshare.com show a growing number of Scots are commuting together by car.

In 2002 when the concept was launched there were only 61 participants. That figure rose to 13,526 by 2012 and this year the number of people signed up stands at 24,351, an 80 per cent increase in five years.

The scheme’s reach is Scotland-wide and six of the seven Regional Transport Partnerships (RTPs) are now clients of liftshare.com.

Lisa Freeman, Strategy and Projects Officer with South East of Scotland Transport Partnership, which runs its own car-sharing scheme, said celebrity endorsements have contributed to the growth.

She said: “Car sharing has seen a great rise in popularity thanks to recent celebrity endorsements by James Corden and Peter Kay. Corden, joined by a host of different celebrities, has made car sharing cool with his Carpool Karaoke, whilst Kay injects humour into car-sharing journeys in his BBC sitcom Peter Kay’s Car Share.

“Car sharing is a great way to reduce costs of driving, it can also reduce the need for car ownership – you don’t even need to own your own car to car share. Many members are happy to car share in return for a small contribution towards costs and some friendly company for their journey. Membership in Edinburgh and around the South East has now risen to over 8,000 people.”

Commuters who car share every day can save an estimated £1,000 a year, according to liftshare.com head of marketing Caroline Mayer.

She said: “We’re seeing a growing interest in lift sharing as an alternative way to travel, particularly for commuters. Six of the seven Scottish Regional Transport Partnerships offer lift share schemes so that commuters all over Scotland can share their car journeys," she said.

“Liftshare Week is all about encouraging people to give sharing a try and discover all the benefits for themselves.”

The Partnership is promoting its car-sharing scheme at TripshareSEStran.com during the week.

Freeman added: “We will be engaging with commuters promoting Tripshare and getting them to signup via our street teams, having some fun and creating a social media buzz."