A Nudge to carpooling

MIKE ALEXANDER

Last updated 08:40 30/07/2012

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One of the capital city's most colourful bands, the Nudge, is used to road testing its songs. But now it's giving a national carpooling campaign a gentle nudge along.

The three musicians - Ryan Prebble, James Coyle and Iraia Whakamoe - have teamed up with Greater Wellington Regional Council to produce a video of their new single, Leif, for the Let's Carpool online initiative.

"We were approached by the council. They were looking for a band to do a video to promote Let's Carpool at a national level," Prebble says. "We managed to convince them to use that song and it all kind of spiralled from there.

"We all live in different parts of the Wellington region so, as a band, it's a bit difficult for us to carpool to band practice. But we have been known to pick up strangers and we definitely support the idea of less traffic on the roads and encouraging a greener way to get to work."

The scheme was set up online three years ago and more than 2200 people have registered with details of where they want to go and where from. Greater Wellington recently approached Auckland Transport to turn the idea into a national carpooling campaign.

Former MP Fran Wilde, now chairwoman of Greater Wellington, says she expects the national Let's Carpool website to be as successful as the Wellington regional site has been. "It will be a great asset for many regions throughout New Zealand," Wilde says.