What do you do if you live in central London, rely on a bike and the bus to get around, but just once in a while want to go to places the railway won’t take you or where you just can’t carry all you need to purchase? Ikea is the only thing in the latter category (I live with a Swede), but you get the idea. You could hire a car, but then you have to troop off to the hire place. Plus booking is a bit of a pain.
So instead I have opted to sign up for Streetcar, a car-pooling scheme that is booming in London. See more in this article from The Guardian. I have not made my first journey in one of their VW Golf cars yet, but the signup process was brilliantly smooth – I cannot recall customer service that was so good, checking with DVLA in a conference call to make sure I am reputable. Plus one of their centres is at Kennington – about 10 minutes on foot from here. If you live in a large city and need a car from time to time, check it out.
Yes, I’m a member of streetcar too and I think it’s excellent and I agree about the customer service in the initial sign-up!
We have lots of its car locations round here (more than anywhere else in England, I understand), which as well as being due to streetcar is also thanks a lot to having a Liberal Democrat council which is really committed to taking concrete steps on the ground to making green travel a reality, and insisting on having the carclub locations 🙂
This pooling car system has been introduced 3 years ago here, in Venice (in the ground part of the city, of course). It’s very appreciated by residents and workers.