Car Clubs / Car Sharing Research Project
Car Share and Car Clubs: Potential Impacts (Final Report)
4. Conclusions on the Potential Role of Car Clubs and of Car Sharing
4.1 Car clubs
Our main conclusions are as follows:
1 Membership of a car club would result in financial savings for people who would otherwise own and run a new/newish car, but whose annual mileage is low. Also, depending on the charging structure adopted by the club, it can provide a saving for short trips made by people who do a high annual mileage. A simple comparison of costs would, however, be misleading for two reasons: firstly because it is difficult to persuade drivers to take the fixed costs of car ownership into account and secondly because people put a high value on convenience. People are unlikely to be persuaded to join car clubs simply because they can save money by so doing.
2 The decision to join a car club must be seen as part of a wider decision to adopt a multi-modal lifestyle making use of car club cars for some journeys but using public transport, taxis, hire cars, bicycles or walking for others.
3 There is considerable mutual advantage from co-operation between public transport operators and car club organisers.
4 Car clubs can bring reductions in car traffic if their members would otherwise be car owners. The opposite effect would occur if the members would not otherwise be car owners.
5 Car clubs cannot compete in terms of cost with ownership of an old car for which the depreciation is minimal. This will make it difficult to achieve the environmental benefit to be gained by persuading owners to scrap inefficient/polluting vehicles.
6 Car clubs might reduce social exclusion by offering access to a car to people who do not currently own one. However, this potential benefit is likely to be elusive for two reasons: firstly because car club membership is not cheaper than ownership and use of an old car and secondly because the disadvantaged groups are not likely to be easy to serve (insurance costs, sparse population, culture, inability to raise the required deposit).
7 The strongest prospect for car clubs is in densely built-up areas with good public transport and a shortage of parking. The potential for incorporating car clubs into new low-car developments is particularly attractive.
8 The introduction of workplace parking levies could help to spawn car clubs - depending on the interpretation of exemption rules.
9 A useful body of expertise has been built up by the relatively small group of people currently involved in the organisation of car clubs.
10 Car clubs currently suffer from an image problem - they are invisible to most people and misunderstood by others; some people are off-put by their 'green' image, and some transport planners see them as a threat to conventional public transport, walking and cycling.
4.2 Car Sharing
Our main conclusions are as follows:
1 Car sharing can make a useful contribution towards reduction in traffic levels.
2 Car sharing can offer a more cost-effective method of providing mobility to certain communities than is possible with conventional public transport.
3 Car sharing is likely to abstract revenue from conventional public transport.
4 Car sharing can make a useful contribution towards reducing the need for parking spaces at places of employment.
5 Car sharing can be encouraged by provision of priority measures for high occupancy vehicles.
6 Car sharing is likely to be encouraged by the introduction of workplace parking levies and road-user charging.
7 The amount of informal car sharing is likely always to be greater than that of organised car sharing.
8 Good practice in the organisation of car sharing schemes is well established.
9 Potential exists for an increase in the number of organised car sharing schemes.