Carplus have published a report about car club activity in Britain. This suggests that there are now 22,000 members of car clubs and 700 vehicles available nationally, 70% being in London. They also report that growth in both areas is accelerating. The report is available from their website - click here.
This year's Camden Green Fair was well attended and included stalls from two of the car clubs - WhizzGo and Zipcar. Both had cars on display and seemed to have a steady stream of visitors, Zipcar also featured an interesting wheel of fortune!
Another event featuring car clubs is the Revolve Brighton to London eco-car rally. This is scheduled for World Environment Day (05/06/07) and WhizzGo lpg cars will be chauffeuring celebrities and dignitaries. Click here for a pdf newsletter.
Of interest to many car club members is National liftshare Day (June 14th 2007), promoted by liftshare who estimate that a typical carsharer will save themselves around £1,000 and 1 tonne of CO2 per year by sharing their daily journey.Click here for more details
City Car Club have undergone a number of changes "City Car Club is leading the way with as the first car club operator in the UK to introduce hybrid cars into its fleet. From May 2007, City Car Club will have 50 Honda Civic Hybrid cars positioned within the London congestion charge zone. These dual petrol and electric cars are not only helping reduce its member’s carbon footprint further but, because of their low carbon emissions, are fully exempt from the congestion charge. 30 of these cars will be within Kensington & Chelsea alone and others will be in surrounding boroughs within the zone".
Zipcar, one of the pioneering car club operators in North America, have announced they are to start operating in London from January 2007. Initially operating from two central London sites their aim is to have 300 London based cars with more than 7,000 members by the end of 2007. They expect 80% of their bays to be off-street and 20% on-street.
The addition of a fourth car club to London is likely to increase choice and convenience for existing and would-be car club members. For more information view their faq's (pdf).
We publish two very useful books; a world-wide review of car clubs and a guide to integrating car clubs into urban planning and management. Both are recommended for travel planners, local authorities etc and can be downloaded as pdf files (see below) or printed versions can be purchased from us for £14.99 each (click here to request details)
Westminster are now supporting electrically powered cars by offering free parking and recharging points in addition to their exemption from the congestion charge. - Click here for more details. WhizzGo are expanding into new cities - see their newsletter for more details. We will bring more location details as we get them Click here for their newslettergood going - this is the latest campaign to help persuade people to change the way they travel. We've signed up not least because of the bonuses being offered by some of the car club companies - go to www.goodgoing.co.uk for more details
ACT - The Association of Commuter Transport (www.act-uk.com/) are extending their information services with a new webzine which features the latest travel plan stories from across the UK and beyond. They are also conducting an on-going debate about many aspects of travel and transport.
The has issued some interesting guidance notes on car sharing and car clubs including some case study summaries - click here to visit their site. We hope this results in some assistance to local authorities to speed up allocation of car club bays - perhaps the biggest impediment to developing new and existing car clubs.
A recent Evening Standard article highlighted the latest of London's Car Clubs - Streetcar, with details of how it started and the service offered. Click here to read the article.
Fuel cell vehicles are starting to appear on the Capital's roads, starting with buses on two routes - 25 and RV1.
