I’m not a big driving enthusiast – I ditched my little Polo almost 8 years ago in favour of pedal powered transport and since then I’ve managed to keep car hire down to a minimum.  Over the next few months though we have a few projects coming up which require transport to rural areas but rather than get into the whole hassle and expense of car ownership again, I’ve opted to join a car club instead and recently signed up with Streetcar.

In a perfect world I’d rather not be doing any driving and using a car is rarely seen as being green but there are some environmental benefits of a car club scheme as opposed to owing a car.  Car clubs means less cars on the roads – in London, one carclub car replaces up to 20 private cars.  They also free up parking spaces, reduce congestion and they’re more efficient as users tend not to use them for unnecessary journeys.

The scheme is aimed at light car users, so if you use a car for more than 2 or 3 days a week it will probably be too expensive. In my case I only intend to hire once or twice a month and for anyone who currently owns a car and uses it lightly, a carclub scheme could end up saving you lots of money.  When you take into account the depreciation of the vehicle, tax, MOT, servicing, repairs, parking and fuel you could be talking about over a hundred pound per week to run a car.

I opted for Streetcar as they had the best availability in my local area but there are several other companies operating across the UK including Whizzgo, City Car Club and Zipcar.  Check out Car Clubs for availability and prices in your area.

As for the Streetcar experience so far, it has been very straightforward and hassle free. The car was parked about 5 minutes from the flat so I was able to pick up and drop really easily.  This coming Sunday we need transport to a photo shoot in Potters Bar, North London.  The location is fairly remote and we have lots of luggage so normally this would involve organising taxis or hiring transport for the entire weekend.  With Streetcar however, I’m planning on hiring for just a few hours in the early evening so it will work out cheaper than taxis.  It also means I don’t need to hire a car from Friday or Satruday till Monday so no unnecessary or unplanned journeys will be on the cards and that makes complete sense to me!

Granted I’m a little bit slow in writing about this but better now than not at all…The people at Sustrans, the sustainable transport charity launched an initiative a few days ago called Change Your World – One mile at a time. The idea being that for one journey this week 1-7^th July, everyone leaves the car at home and swaps it for something that’s better for the planet.

Apparently a quarter of all car journeys are under 2 miles and over half are under 5 miles…perfect distances for walking and cycling! If every driver were to adopt the same approach and reduce car use by one journey a week the result would be 10% less traffic on the roads and a significant reduction in the UK’s CO₂ emissions.

You could always go one step further and cut down even more on car use by car sharing regularly. This is something I did many years ago when my job was based in the middle of nowehere and I was forced to own a car to get to work every day. I ended up being good friends with my fellow car sharer though top tip for anyone considering it, make a rule first about acceptable car music as Craigs choice of Jazz FM day in and out was just a little bit too much for me to cope with.

If car sharing is something of interest then sites like Liftshare which has over 175,000 members and Carplus are a good resource for finding travel companions in your area. Car sharing not only resulted in me being less dependent on my own car but also cut my travel costs considerably every month so if you’re in a similar position it comes recommended.