Mayor Mark Troy said “like all the best ideas, Carpool Mid North Coast is very simple”.

“The free, easy-to-use website helps match members with people taking the same journey, whether regularly or occasionally, and they share a vehicle, which cuts the environmental and travel costs,” he said.

“It’s a win-win all round.”

The Carpool scheme included a secure, free, carpool website, member car stickers and branded road signs, which would identify the pick-up and set down locations, Cr Troy said.

Priority car-parking spaces for cars in the carpool would be identified in each council area by branded marking.

A pilot scheme launched in 2009 in the Northern Rivers region had already proved highly successful.

Council’s sustainability and natural resources manager Daan Schiebaan said commuters on the Mid North Coast had few transport options, “We frequently

travel substantial distances by car and, usually alone,” he said.

“By putting in place a network of carpoolers across the region, and linking it into the existing carpool schemes elsewhere, members have a very good chance of finding someone making the same journey as themselves, whether it’s local or more distant.”