Car-share scheme proves a flop
By Paul Marston, Transport Correspondent

A GOVERNMENT scheme intended to encourage people to give up their cars in favour of a neighbourhood vehicle-sharing arrangement is being closed down as a loss-making failure.

 The pioneer "city car club" in Edinburgh, foreshadowed in John Prescott's integrated transport White Paper three years ago, will cease operations in March because demand for its services has been far below expectations. Despite low charges, the scheme has attracted only 170 customers, and 16 of the 22 sites where participants can pick up cars have been used hardly at all.

 The Department of Environment, Transport and the Regions, which spent £150,000 on the project, was hoping that it would lead to similar ventures in cities across Britain, and spearhead a reduction in individual car ownership. The scheme, which also received local authority and Scottish Office funding, was set up in Edinburgh because it was thought that residents there might be sufficiently community-minded to take part.

 Budget car rental group, the initiative's private sector partner, has lost £200,000 on the operation since it started in March 1999 and has decided to shut it down. For an annual registration fee of £99, club members were able to hire a car from a central pool at as little as 15 minutes' notice, picking it up from their nearest parking site. Hire charges were £4.50 for the first hour, then £2 for each subsequent hour, plus a mileage rate of 9p a mile.

 The scheme's architects claimed it was much cheaper than the costs of full-time ownership for city-dwellers with average journey patterns. In Switzerland, a similar framework has attracted more than 29,000 members over 13 years. 

Budget attempted to increase interest with an extensive marketing campaign, including press and poster advertisements, mailshots, residents' meetings and a joint promotional programme with local employers. But the company found that hardly any households were ready to give up their own car.