Car clubs can reduce vehicle use and pollution
Car clubs provide access to vehicles on a trip-by-trip basis and are increasingly available at locations across the UK, alongside other shared mobility services including shared bikes and shared e-scooters.
They allow people to share a car, giving individual drivers and households the benefits of access to a car while reducing – and often removing – the need and expense of owning and maintaining their own private vehicle.
Car clubs positively contribute to transport decarbonisation goals through lower car ownership, reduced car use and less-polluting vehicles.
They are an important shared mobility solution for local authorities to embrace in their local transport plans.
This is particularly pertinent to building on the momentum of the UN climate change conferences (COP26 and COP27), and to delivering on the UK Government’s commitment to reduce carbon emissions to net zero by 2050.
Car clubs provide access to shared vehicles to club members on a pay-as-you-drive basis. There are different types of car club models, but each involve access to a vehicle that is paid for by the minute, hour or day depending on the pricing structure. Tariffs are typically all inclusive (fuel is included in some tariffs, others charge a rate per mile).
According to CoMoUK, the national charity for shared transport, there are currently more than 780,000 car club members with nearly 5,000 vehicles in the UK. Total membership has increased threefold since 2016.
If introduced with the right market conditions and appropriate local authority support, car clubs can provide multiple benefits.
For example, CoMoUK highlights through research with car club users that:
- one car club car in the UK removes up to 20 private cars off the road
- car club vehicles are cleaner than the private fleet with 100 per cent of publicly available car club cars compliant with low emission zones
- battery electric vehicles form a growing part of car club fleets (currently 12 per cent, compared with 1 per cent of private vehicles).
With increasing living costs, car clubs can provide a timely relief to the financial burden of private car ownership.
Car club members avoid the full cost of repairs, maintenance, depreciation, insurance, fuel, tax, servicing and parking.
Research also suggests car club members tend to then increase their sustainable and active travel journeys after signing up, particularly in urban environments, with walking, cycling and public transport fulfilling shorter journeys previously undertaken by a private car.
Councils can take a range of measures to promote and support car clubs and ensure these benefits are optimised. These include:
- procurement approaches to allow car clubs to be introduced in sufficient quantity
- permit pricing to assist with initial financial sustainability
- facilitating parking provision (either marked bays or permits across the local authority)
- providing sufficient charging infrastructure when introducing electric car club vehicles.
Car clubs also need policy support in transport plans and political buy-in and promotion, along with backing from local stakeholders and residents themselves.
Steer is developing a report for the LGA that will explore these benefits and considerations in more detail, and which will be published on the LGA’s website in due course.