Postby DudleyR » Wed Sep 28, 2011 1:37 am
You may have noticed in your street some hire cars called things like "Street Car"; some of you may even know that, subject to a membership fee, these vehicles can be rented by the hour. According to a recent Wandsworth Council web post, over 10,000 residents in the borough have signed up to the scheme (at a cost of about £50/year).
I think that car clubs have the potential to be a great way to reduce the number of vehicles fighting our over-crowded parking spaces. My wife says she's no interest in using one. Overall, we are probably both right; a great idea that will never touch the lives of most of us.
However, Wandsworth council plans to raise the number of spaces for such cars from 31 to 150 over 4 months and long term to 1,000. They don't say what "long term" is, or how many people they think this will encourage to join. If I were a cynic, and luckily I am, by the end of the year you 10,000 members will get to share one of 150 cars, meaning that if you left the engine running 24/7 all year, each of you get to use a car on average 5.5 days per year. How you travel the other 359.5 days a year isn't clear.
However, I'm not here to rubbish a noble cause; I want to pose the question "why not join?" Given the council is going to waste, sorry I meant "wisely spend", your money taking up your resident bays to repaint them with the words "car club only", I think local parents should offer their views on how a car club could be an attractive alternative to a second (or even 1st, 3rd etc) car.
For me, the lack of car seats already somewhere in the car renders car clubs useless; I don't have room for two car seats in my flat, and even if I did I couldn't carry them, a buggy, two children... you get the point... to and from a hire car 100 yards from my home. So what's your excuse?
We already know Nappy Valley parents are amongst the brightest people on the planet* so let's help the council to maximise the useful potential of these schemes - after all, it your council tax that's being spent on this whether it works or not.
(*not yet independently verified)