New ride-sharing app lifts off in Northern Beaches

Peak hour on Sydney Rd at the turn-off to Spit Bridge.

It’s like Uber with benefits - It’s local, it involves your own circle of friends, and best of all - it’s free!

Localift is an app built by Manly entrepreneurs Krystyna Weston and Stephen Coulter to help people arrange free lifts between people they know. Like car-pooling, but rejigged for people living their lives in the fast lane. 

Ms Weston and Mr Coulter say our traffic is already so bad, we can’t wait for promised infrastructure such as tunnels, road widening or B-Line buses. Their statistics illustrate the point:



•    We live in a car culture, with 75% of Northern Beaches workers driving to work
•    Only 1 in 14 cars have a passenger
•    25% of morning peak hour traffic is related to schools
•   Saturday sport creates terrible traffic and parking chaos 

“Look at netball as an example,” Ms Weston said.  “ With the season starting in April, every Saturday there are thousands of people at John Fisher Park at Curl Curl creating traffic and parking congestion for participants and residents.  If an app like Localift is used there’s potential to reduce cars by 25% to 50%.”

She said Localift works by bringing together social networking, mapping, messaging and calendars in one app.  Users “friend” each other in the app and can arrange lifts directly or through groups of friends.

“This is a brilliant idea by Krystyna and Stephen, and could be a real game-changer for our region,”  Good For Manly President Candy Bingham said. 

“I’ve used the app and it worked very well. I love the way this will not only take cars off the road, but has the potential to strengthen community ties.

“And we’re the first ‘cab’ off the rank, which is very cool. If the app is a success here, it will be rolled out in other regions and overseas."

You can download the Localift app from iTunes or Google Play, or contact [email protected] to have your sport, school or club more actively involved.  More details at localift.net 

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