Norwich car share scheme doubles in size

The city’s car sharing scheme, run by City Car Club and funded under the European Union’s Civitas Smile programme, has recently doubled in size. Don’t get too excited, even with the doubling in size, the club is still only running a modest six cars and six locations in central Norwich.

Undeniably, however, it is a resounding success for the scheme, which has been running in some form since April 2006.

Early days
It began with one car based at the University of East Anglia (UEA), outside the centre of the city. Six months later, four on-street cars were added at two locations in the city centre.

“It was quite a high number to launch with, because we didn’t have any members at all at that point,” says Bruce Bentley, senior planner (transportation) at Norwich City Council.

The early days weren’t a total success, though, and the UEA car was pulled in mid-2007 due to lack of interest.

Locations
The on-street cars have been a different story. In February this year, the number of on-street cars was increased to six and, perhaps more importantly, the number of locations increased to six as well.

“It means that every location has a car assigned to it, rather than having only two locations to choose from,” says Bentley. He explains that one of the prime reasons for the scheme’s success has been the careful selection of locations for the cars. All six sites are in the south and west central part of the city, which is regarded as a bohemian, middle class area, with strong support for environmental issues.

“Obviously, for the club to be a success, particularly in the early days, we needed to aim at those people who were most likely to use it. It was one of the most important decisions we made and it’s worked out very well,” says Bentley.

Affordable
There was also a hope that the care share club could be a way of increasing mobility opportunities for citizens who could not afford their own car. As yet there is not enough information available to see if this has happened.

Members
The car club now has around 70 members, each paying a joining fee of £75. Initially, the club’s launch was widely publicised in the local media, which generated more than 300 membership enquiries. More recently, increasing numbers of new members have been attracted largely by word of mouth.

Self-funding
Civitas funding for the project finishes in November 2008, by which time Bentley expects to be able to publish a full report on the scheme and how successful it has been. By that time, he says that the scheme should be self-funding and on the threshold of further growth.