Racelifts.org

[Alun]

Are you concerned about the cost of getting to orienteering events? Or the congestion we cause? Or the environmental impact? As an organiser, do you worry about car park space?

Experienced orienteers will know others who live near them, so can sort out lifts with mates. But newer members may not know many others in their club or, if you live near the boundary, those from other clubs. With this in mind, I have been experimenting with a website called racelifts.org. Originally set up for marathon and ultra-marathon runners, the guy who runs it is keen to support orienteering races as well. And Fabian4 have expressed interest. One of the current drawbacks is that the event organiser has to manually transfer postcodes from Fabian4 to racelifts.org; if there is sufficient interest in racelifts, Adrian has indicated that he could build an automated routine to handle this.

We tried racelifts for the TVOC event at Bradenham on Sunday, offering a prize draw to those who registered of a free entry to our next event. 11.5% of entrants registered with racelifts. However I do not know how many of those actually secured or gave a lift as a result (or just registered to be entered into the draw!) Hopefully usage will pick up as people become more accustomed to the concept. We are using it again for our Urban Race at RAF Halton on 3rd January - not least because parking there will be quite tight.

I would encourage other clubs also to give it a go.

[andypat]

NIce idea - hope it catches on.

[plain lazy]

I think it's a great idea in principle, I hope that it gathers momentum.

[EddieH]

I hope so too. I think it's particularly good for people finding themselves away from home, and for getting to major events having travelled to the area by public transport. Scottish Champs seems an obvious event to try using it up here.

Best of luck with it Alun.