| Wednesday 12th November 2008 |
| Car Club event celebrates a decade of Edinburgh Innovation |
Edinburgh is the setting for an international conference “Car Clubs have arrived!” to be held on March 19th 2009, celebrating 10 years as a pioneer of car sharing clubs.
The city is now proud host to the largest, most well-integrated car club scheme outside London, operated by the City Car Club since 2002. With 86 cars in use today by over 2,000 members, this scheme is reducing cars on Edinburgh’s roads. Research shows that for each car located on dedicated parking places throughout the city there are at least 6 cars taken out of the system.
This one day Conference will include workshops and a Technical Tour of the Edinburgh Car Club operation. Speakers include Michael Glotz Richter (Sustainable Mobility, City of Bremen) who visited Edinburgh a decade ago to explain how “car sharing” was working in Germany, and Dr Jillian Anable (Aberdeen University) who is working on travel demand management for the UK Energy Research Centre and on Smart Choices Phase II. Speakers from the Scottish Government, car club operators from mainland Europe and Britain are also confirmed.
Co-hosted by the City of Edinburgh Council and sustainable transport charity, the Transform Scotland Trust, the event examines the growing significance of car clubs which are currently showing substantial growth as more people - including employers - look for alternatives to car ownership.
City Car Club CEO, James Finlayson, said: “Throughout most of Europe and North America car clubs are showing significant growth as more householders and employers opt into their local pay-as-you-go alternative to car ownership. Through our partnership with Edinburgh Council we have progressively offered more and more locations and been able to serve a bigger area. When people have convenient access they opt to join. We are planning to have 100 cars available by Easter 2009 and expect to have around 3,000 members.”
Professor Stephen Stradling, chair of Transform Scotland Trust and co-host of the event, said: “This major conference will help us to understand how this form of car sharing provides a practical local alterative to your own car. Car clubs are now becoming a real part of the sustainable transport strategy of many progressive European cities. There are 50,000 car club members in Britain and we expect to see significant growth in Scotland in the next decade.”
Cllr Phil Wheeler, City Of Edinburgh Council said: “The council is delighted to be in the position to share the key lessons learnt from our flagship car club. We feel that, as the beneficiaries of government funding a decade ago, we have a responsibility to share our experiences with other cities and towns that will hopefully follow our lead in years to come.” |
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