Expanding car clubs across Scotland

The Transform Scotland Trust has announced details of its plans to review opportunities for expanding car clubs across Scotland. The project will bring together recommendations for action by the Scottish Government and local government and raise understanding of the potential contribution that car clubs can make both directly and indirectly to reducing carbon emissions from transport.

The project, which will be carried out over the next few months, has attracted the support of three of Scotland's regional transport partnerships, Co-operative Development Scotland, ScotRail and the Scottish Government

Professor Stephen Stradling, Chair of the Transform Scotland Trust, said:

The 100,000th car club member in Britain will be signed up this autumn but only 3 per cent of these people are in Scotland. Our research will identify how car clubs can become available to people across Scotland, and not just in Edinburgh. We will identify what is required to create a more supportive environment for both commercial car clubs to flourish in bigger conurbations and for co-operative or voluntary schemes in smaller communities.
We know that the Scottish transport minister Stewart Stevenson is personally keen to see the expansion of car clubs, and we intend this research to present a clear way forward for the Minister and his colleagues in local government to make car clubs commonplace in Scotland.

Chas Ball, who has been commissioned to lead the project, said:

Edinburgh led the way by creating the UK's first commercially run car club, and it remains to this day the largest car club in Britain outside London. But ten years after its introduction, there are still no large car-sharing clubs outside of Edinburgh. There are, however, a number of new start-up and experimental schemes in the planning stage - in Glasgow, Aviemore, and Mallaig - which Transform Scotland Trust plans to document as part of this project.
The principle of car clubs is simple - members have access to a fleet of vehicles based in convenient locations near their home, workplace or transport hubs for use on an 'as required' basis.
Typically members book cars on-line and pay by the hour plus mileage.
Individuals and employers gain the benefit of access to a car, without the cost and responsibility of private vehicle ownership.
They often also gain access to dedicated on-street parking in areas where parking is limited and costly.
Higher fuel costs, increased environmental awareness, and a slowing economy have supported the rapid growth of car clubs in Britain - particularly in London over the last two or three years - as the concept has become better understood, and the technology has improved.

To contribute to the review - and to provide opportunities to learn more about recent developments here and elsewhere in Europe - there will be three one-day workshops run in November in Glasgow, Perth and Inverness.

Find details of the programme and how to register a contribution at the transform Scotland website