car clubs - do we need more of them?

[carclubresearch]

I want to know if someone who doesn't run a car but who has access to car club ever really misses having their own private car - are there situations which can't be solved by public transport/ club car/ taxi/ car hire/ bicycle....?

[DJKillaQueen]

There is another problem with car clubs in that they exclude people with points on their licenses for certain things. Some people have no other option but to own their own car I'm afraid.

[carclubresearch]

hmmm another thing I hadn't thought of....

[Peckhamgatecrasher]

With Aged P's one needs to be able to hop in a car and zoom to them without any faffing about.

[Huguenot]

It's a cost/benefit issue - not a fixed argument.

For some people cost may be defined merely in financial terms, or in convenience terms; for others it may be defined in social terms or environmental terms.

Likewise benefits may be classed in emotional, financial, temporal or other terms.

I disagree with DJKQ that someone may have 'no other option but to own a car', but I agree that there are situations where the benefits of owning a car would likely enormously outwiegh the perceived cost - especially for those who are physically disabled by age or infirmity, for those with extended family responsibilities and so on.

Even in those situations there are alternatives - and they will find themselves in the spotlight when the cost of the resources to run a car starts to escalate (for example the price of oil), or the efficiency of car ownership decreases (for example through gridlock).

Likewise having points on your license doesn't mean you MUST buy a car, it just means that if you want a car, you can't use a carclub.

[carclubresearch]

Talking of costs and benefits - in my last bit of research I found lots of evidence linking car use negatively with physical activity. Those who used cars less had higher levels of active travel/ physical activity, lower BMIs (body mass index), rates of obesity etc. And all these bits of physical activity have strong health implications. Do you think that if people were aware of the health costs of car use and benefits of short walks e.g to bus stops etc - this would change their attitude towards car use? i.e, increase awareness of costs of car use relative to benefits?

[Huguenot]

It would probably be preaching to the converted.

It's another example of carclubs failing to hit the mark in identifying the motives of those who could use carclubs but don't.

Exchanging a privately owned personal transport for a shared-ownership one can't possibly campaign on the basis that the 3 min walk to the car is going to increase their health.

[DJKillaQueen]

Tbh right now I'd find use of a car club cheaper than keeping my own car but I have 6 points on my licence (due to expire August) and no car club will let me join because of that. I do wherever cheaper/ easier use bicycle/ bus etc but there are times where only a car will suffice.

[carclubresearch]

I wasn't thinking about it in relation to car club at all - I was just wondering whether thinking about benefits to ones own health etc would be a better motivational factor in reducing car use than the environment has been...I certainly wasn't imagining car club promoters pushing that one...

[Huguenot]

I don't think so, because it's too rational. Car ownership is predicated upon irrational convictions.

You could achieve it by running campaigns with fat losers behind the wheel of a car, doing fat loser things and dying young.

You'd get hauled over the coals for it, but at the moment car ads are full of young pretty people doing successful things with a promise about sex at the end. It's just as distorting.

[Frankito]

You can never be too thin, too rich nor have too many car clubs....

[carclubresearch]

Following on from this I have been running a survey in the lounge. Just in case anyone who participated in the discussion hasn't filled in the survey - here it is.

Click here to take survey

For each completed survey money will be donated to something worthwhile (ALD Life, St Christopher's Hospice or one of the local schools listed - you choose which).

Thanks

Belinda