Alphabet questioned more than 1,000 people about car-sharing to test changing attitudes to motoring habits. And while older drivers were less likely to welcome the idea of sharing journeys regularly, nearly 80% of younger respondents were ready to consider sharing to help reduce congestion and pollution. Overall, six out of 10 car users said they would be willing to car-share in future.
The main reason given by drivers who did not want to offer lift-shares was that it would be impractical for them because of their job, working hours or location.
Other common objections were being uncomfortable about sharing their car with a stranger and not wanting to give up valued time on their own while driving.
Mark Sinclair, director at Alphabet, said: "To meet future carbon targets, businesses will need to closely control their energy use. Many traditional working patterns will be affected and fleet operators will be in the vanguard of change.
"We ran this survey to assess how drivers in general feel about adopting new behaviours. People tend to feel fairly comfortable about routines such as the daily commute. The fact that many respondents said they would consider a departure from the norm such as lift-sharing could be seen as a good sign for organisations that are thinking about introducing new policies and working practices in the coming years.
"We don't expect lift-sharing to take the place of dedicated cars for essential business users. But car-sharing has established a growing following among commuters and we expect to see steady growth in the number of people using internet lift-sharing sites or workplace schemes."
Alphabet also asked respondents to name their most and least favourite choice of passenger to lift-share with. Writer and comedian Stephen Fry was the most popular, followed by The X Factor judge Cheryl Cole and Top Gear's Jeremy Clarkson.
Heading the ‘most unwanted' list were the prime minister, Gordon Brown, and ex-model Katie 'Jordan' Price, followed at some distance by BBC presenter Jonathan Ross.
