Why is BlaBlaCar carpooling not popular in the UK?

[urpert]

It's a good question. One possible factor might be is that apart from London and Manchester, most British cities have a commercial centre and the predominant residential area is the suburbs, so there are fewer opportunities for people to pool car trips from centre to centre. But on the other hand that would handicap trains too.

Another possibility: the UK benefits from extremely low train fares for people who are willing to give up their flexibility, and maybe this is what has headed off the blablacar competition.

Not convinced about the latter. I’ve never had any more difficulty finding advance/Prem’s/Sparpreis/whatever tickets with either DB or SNCF than I have with long distance journeys in the UK.

 

[radamfi]

Are you aware that this is a thread about BlaBlaCar and that I made no mention of National Express?

It does however illustrate my point that BlaBlaCar is not competitive due to it's high prices.

Apologies, I thought it was a reply to the tangential discussion about coaches.

 

[DanJK]

It is such a good question that I am doing my university dissertation on it. If you have approx. 6mins, could you please fill in my survey so that I can find out? You have to be between 18 - 30 years old to do it, although some get confused with their age sometimes? Anyway, I would be very very grateful to anyone who fills it in. Thanks!!

https://lboro.onlinesurveys.ac.uk/long-distance-ridesharing-survey