Trendsurfing: Car clubs (The Times)
By David Rowan
Fancy driving a new car without paying for one? You'll get your own local reserved parking space, never have to worry about maintenance or road tax, and even have your insurance and petrol taken care of. Each time you need it, you simply borrow the neighbourhood Corsa or Focus and pledge to return it at a pre-arranged time. And if that doesn't persuade you, there's always the moral superiority you'll gain from helping minimise pollution and urban congestion.
The secret? A network of local "car clubs" that is quickly spreading across Britain. For around £15 a month, club members gain access to communal vehicles based nearby that they can book in advance by phone or over the net. Then, whenever they use one, they typically pay around £3 an hour plus an all-inclusive 18p mileage fee. The idea is proving so popular that Smart Moves, the biggest UK operator of car clubs, is expecting to triple its membership by December.
Adrian Mantle, a Bristol fire officer, is absolutely persuaded. Mantle, 41, has always preferred cycling to work, and now he borrows his local club's car only when he needs it. "This afternoon I had it for three hours to visit a friend, but when I went to the pub last night it made more sense to take a cab," he explains. "I can choose whichever means of transport suits me at the time, without having to worry that I'm responsible for a car that's just sitting outside for days at a time costing me money." The Bristol club's two-year-old Astra is parked a short walk from Mantle's home, but for that minor inconvenience he cites plenty more benefits. "Compared with having to fix your own car, or finding your insurance premium going up, it's a whole lot less hassle, and much cheaper," he says. "I'd like to see car clubs on every street corner."
It is a vision that Chas Ball shares. Ball is joint managing director of Smart Moves (www.smartmoves.co.uk), which currently runs schemes in Edinburgh, Bristol, Brighton and London - where local authorities such as Islington are encouraging car-sharing by offering dedicated parking bays. "We'll hit 100 cars by March, and by the end of the year we'll have 150 cars and at least 3,000 members," he says. "To make it work, you need about 15 users per car, but you try to get 20 - each of whom will be saving £2,000 to £3,000 a year by not running their own." Members are anywhere between 21 and 70, he says - ranging from ex-owners "fed up with dealing with maintenance and costs" to families learning to do without their second car.
Similar schemes in Switzerland and the US have convinced Ball that car-sharing will boom as politicians demand an ever more "integrated" transport policy. "In Switzerland, two per cent of drivers use these schemes, so it's not out of the question to have 500,000 drivers signed up here," he says. "I don't want to pick a too ambitious target, so as not to outrage the Jeremy Clarksons, but we're looking at 10,000 members by 2007."
Still, there are a few stumbling blocks to overcome. "When I tell people I don't own a car, they assume I'm a bearded geography teacher with weird green ideas," Adrian Mantle admits. "There is that status thing. But once people get over the idea of car ownership being cool and trendy, it's going to take off. Why shouldn't you have a mix of tools available when you need transport?"
(The Times, London, January 22 2005)
Fancy driving a new car without paying for one? You'll get your own local reserved parking space, never have to worry about maintenance or road tax, and even have your insurance and petrol taken care of. Each time you need it, you simply borrow the neighbourhood Corsa or Focus and pledge to return it at a pre-arranged time. And if that doesn't persuade you, there's always the moral superiority you'll gain from helping minimise pollution and urban congestion.
The secret? A network of local "car clubs" that is quickly spreading across Britain. For around £15 a month, club members gain access to communal vehicles based nearby that they can book in advance by phone or over the net. Then, whenever they use one, they typically pay around £3 an hour plus an all-inclusive 18p mileage fee. The idea is proving so popular that Smart Moves, the biggest UK operator of car clubs, is expecting to triple its membership by December.
Adrian Mantle, a Bristol fire officer, is absolutely persuaded. Mantle, 41, has always preferred cycling to work, and now he borrows his local club's car only when he needs it. "This afternoon I had it for three hours to visit a friend, but when I went to the pub last night it made more sense to take a cab," he explains. "I can choose whichever means of transport suits me at the time, without having to worry that I'm responsible for a car that's just sitting outside for days at a time costing me money." The Bristol club's two-year-old Astra is parked a short walk from Mantle's home, but for that minor inconvenience he cites plenty more benefits. "Compared with having to fix your own car, or finding your insurance premium going up, it's a whole lot less hassle, and much cheaper," he says. "I'd like to see car clubs on every street corner."
It is a vision that Chas Ball shares. Ball is joint managing director of Smart Moves (www.smartmoves.co.uk), which currently runs schemes in Edinburgh, Bristol, Brighton and London - where local authorities such as Islington are encouraging car-sharing by offering dedicated parking bays. "We'll hit 100 cars by March, and by the end of the year we'll have 150 cars and at least 3,000 members," he says. "To make it work, you need about 15 users per car, but you try to get 20 - each of whom will be saving £2,000 to £3,000 a year by not running their own." Members are anywhere between 21 and 70, he says - ranging from ex-owners "fed up with dealing with maintenance and costs" to families learning to do without their second car.
Similar schemes in Switzerland and the US have convinced Ball that car-sharing will boom as politicians demand an ever more "integrated" transport policy. "In Switzerland, two per cent of drivers use these schemes, so it's not out of the question to have 500,000 drivers signed up here," he says. "I don't want to pick a too ambitious target, so as not to outrage the Jeremy Clarksons, but we're looking at 10,000 members by 2007."
Still, there are a few stumbling blocks to overcome. "When I tell people I don't own a car, they assume I'm a bearded geography teacher with weird green ideas," Adrian Mantle admits. "There is that status thing. But once people get over the idea of car ownership being cool and trendy, it's going to take off. Why shouldn't you have a mix of tools available when you need transport?"
(The Times, London, January 22 2005)
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