I’ve blogged before about shared ownership of cars and car clubs, but saw these articles on shareable.net: How to share a car, part 1 and How to share a car part 2.  The articles are written by Janelle Orsi the author of a new book The Sharing Solution. The first part broadly covers car clubs, in the UK these are operated by companies like Zipcar, Connect by Hertz and CityCarClub.  The second part covers informal car clubs, where a small group (say two to six)  private individuals own a car.  I’m pleases that , wrote these articles cover this, because I think this is a great way forward, particularly for rural and small town commnities where the major car clubs are unlikely to operate, and where there are often severe transport issues.  However few people appear to even cosider owning a car with people who live nearby.  Part 2 also covers carpooling or liftsharing: in the UK the major operator is Liftshare.

Another great source of information about car sharing is Carplus and this recent report by Frost and Sullivan on the sustainable potential of carsharing is worth a read.

yours2share has some great guidance on car clubs and car sharing and here are the current car sharing listings

On Tuesday I went along to another Norfolk Netwalking event at Mattishall and, as one does at these occasions, met another really interesting person. Jackie Willis runs Care Motoring. My first reaction was “well I suppose maybe she might know people who would benefit from using yours2share to create an informal car club“, and I was right about that, but there was far more to Jackie than that.

She is passionate about teaching to drive well and safely, not just pass a driving test. Again I was sceptical, it sounded like a good idea, but getting people to pay for this would be another matter. Then she explained how she is working with a2om to create a new BTEC course on driving science. This course has been rolled out first in Britain’s public schools, a canny idea I thought, as this both tests the system and then creates aspiration in middle class parents to have their children similarly trained. Now Jackie is talking to youth leaders to find ways of obtaining funding for 17 year olds who could not afford the course themselves. Youth leaders’ response has been very positive as the course teaches students not only how to drive but also how to assess and deal with risky situations.

I’m glad that there are people taking a stand to improve driving safety. Too many young people are involved in accidents. Any initiative has to be driven by a core of people who feel passionately about the issue. For me the issue is sharing, for Jackie it is safe driving.