Car users urged to take up greener travel

Published 22 September 2010

Cllr Hargrove, cabinet member for transport, environment and recycling at Southwark Council, signs up for Streetcar

Councillor Barrie Hargrove urges all drivers in the borough to take up car sharing, to ease parking pressures and help reduce carbon emissions

His call follows a special event at Southwark Council's Tooley Street offices where he himself signed up became a member of car-sharing organisation Streetcar.

Hundreds of people expressed an interest on the day, which was aimed at promoting the use of the car club to council staff, and the public in the Tooley Street area.

Figures show that increased car club membership leads to a reduction on private car ownership. This has the twin benefits of reduced carbon emissions and long-term increased parking capacity across the borough.

In March of this year Southwark Council partnered Streetcar to launch London 's largest, and fastest, car club expansion programme.

Cllr Barrie Hargrove, cabinet member for transport, environment and recycling at Southwark Council, said

"The success of car clubs is not really surprising, given that they save people money and are good for the environment. I want to promote the benefits of car club use to as many people as possible, and the event went really well - I aim to make the most of my membership, and hope many people will follow suite."

Notes to editors

Photo caption: Cllr Barrie Hargrove, cabinet member for transport, environment and recycling at Southwark Council signs up to become a member of Streetcar.

The staff event took place on Thursday September 9.

Why Southwark Council supports Streetcar

Studies show that car clubs benefit the local area in a variety of ways:

Better parking for residents

The fewer cars on the streets as a result of the car club leads to less pressure on parking bays. Figures show that for every car club vehicle, there is a corresponding reduction, over time, of twenty five private cars4, which will free up parking spaces on the road.

A greener borough

With potential car owners opting to use a communal club vehicle instead of buying their own car, and with two car families selling their second (often older) car, these pay-as-you-go cars result in fewer emissions. Moreover the car club vehicles are generally more modern, more fuel efficient and better maintained than privately owned vehicles, thus reducing emissions once more.

March 2010 launch

In March of this year car club operator Streetcar struck a deal with the council to allow the vehicles to be parked using on-street parking spaces. Previously Streetcar (and other car club vehicles) had been operating from privately owned sites.

The first new bays were located in East Dulwich . There are now nearly ninety car club vehicles in all areas of the borough

How it works

The booking, for as little as half an hour at a time, using telephone or internet, can be made well ahead of time or with a few minutes notice. Cars are located at designated on-street parking bays in the local area and accessed using the member's smart card. Once inside the driver enters a pin and drives away, returning the car to the same parking bay at the end of the journey. Pay-as-you-go charges include fuel and maintenance and congestion charging costs. A membership charge is paid annually.

Benefits

Members use cars for a third of the number of trips of non-members (23% journeys vs 65%), and members reduce their mileage by 50% once they start using a club. [1]

Increased walking and cycling - members report that they walk more and cycle more frequently, compared to the national equivalent 4

Increased use of public transport - In the UK, former car owners increase their use of non-car transport modes by 40% after joining a car club.

Combining fewer miles driven in a more efficient car creates savings of 0.7 tonnes CO2 per member per year in the UK . These saved emissions are equivalent to a return flight to Barcelona . 2

As of 1 December 2009 there were 108,191 UK car club members in the UK , 86% of who live in London . 3

[1] Environmental Change Institute, University of Oxford ' UK car clubs: an effective way of cutting vehicle usage and emissions?' Matthew Ledbury 2004.