Action Groups - Car Sharing

East Oxford

The East Oxford group has been active over the summer and have taken the initiative with plans to set up a car club.  They have held a small gathering of interested people, delivered leaflets to 400 houses, and spoken to 63 people on their doorsteps. 

They've even started a website, where you can read some brief details - www.oxcar.org.uk - with an online survey and contact address.  If anyone has any relevant experience they'd love to hear from you, please e-mail eastox@transitionoxford.org.uk.

Rest of Oxford

A few of us have met together for a fruitful evening, and other conversations have added extra dimensions to our thinking.

In many parts of the UK there are now Car Clubs, and a charity exists to promote them. Its website has a great deal of useful information.
www.carplus.org.uk

Members of a Car Club have use when they want it of one of the club’s cars, which ideally are located within a short walk from members’ homes. On-board computers allow a personalised smart card to control access, and booking can be done by email or phone.

Where Car Clubs succeed, it is reckoned that each car displaces six privately owned vehicles. In residential areas where parking is an issue this is a very strong argument in their favour. Members in effect share the costs of owning and maintaining the vehicles (which is a lot more than most motorists like to admit). More than this, research indicates that people who join a car club tend to use more public transport than previously, and reduce their car-mileage by 25%!

They do not suit everyone – particularly those who are very dependent on their own vehicle – but can offer a rational alternative to private ownership that is financially and practically advantageous to the individual, while having the effect of reducing cars and car-traffic for the whole community.

There are a few commercial Car Clubs expanding quickly in this country, and also a number of other Car Clubs that do not seek to extract profits from their members. We are looking at the options that make most sense for Oxford.

If anyone has direct experience of a Car Club in another part of the country, we’d like to hear from you: you may know more than we do!