TRANSPORT

CAR SHARING: METHODS AND EFFECTS

Introduced by David Mathews, Bath Chamber of Commerce, on 13 April 1999

Car sharing takes two forms: shared journeys, which can be formally or informally arranged, and shared ownership as co-operatives or car pools.

Shared journeys range from hitch-hiking to company-organised schemes. The Government have encouraged it by permitting drivers to charge their passengers and by allowing HVO (high vehicle occupancy) lanes to be designated by highway authorities in which only vehicles containing more than one person are allowed. A few companies have organised schemes, which are sometimes introduced as part of a planning application and sometimes as company policy to encourage team-building, e.g. Halifax Building Society in Halifax, and Wessex Water in Bath.

HVO lanes are not yet frequent but in Leeds a 5 km length demonstrated that users saved 2½ minutes on an 11 minutes journey into town (23%) (but there was no saving going out from town). In

Bristol, the Avon ring road has an HVO lane and it is proposed that the M32 hard shoulder should be used as one.

Shared ownership can be either an agreement between, for example, neighbours to jointly own only one car between them, an arrangement which suits some locations where walking or cycling to shops and jobs is easy, or a car pool organised by a group. Car pools are popular at universities, organised by Students' Unions and information (in French) on a Swiss scheme `444', which included half-price train fares and car hire at the destination of various sizes and types of car, was provided.

It is clearly not possible to require car sharing; examples of incompatibility were provided varying from the dislike of the driver's choice of radio programme to criticism of his driving.

Don Lovell