Image: DriveNow
Barnet Council is consulting on plans to introduce floating car club schemes, as part of wider efforts to improve access to transport across the borough.
Unlike a traditional car club – in which the car is returned to a dedicated bay at the end of a hire – a floating car club allows users to hire from one point and leave the vehicle at another.
The model does not rely on designated bays, as the vehicles can ‘typically’ be parked in resident and shared use bays. To allow for this, scheme operators are required to purchase a permit from the council.
The success of traditional car clubs in Barnet – which ‘provide easy short term access to vehicles for those that cannot afford them’ – has led the council to consider introducing floating car clubs, which have been operating across other parts of London since 2014.
One company currently delivering floating car clubs in London is DriveNow (pictured), who operate in Islington, Hackney, Haringey and Waltham Forest.
The consultation covers the following topics:
- Permitting floating car clubs to operate across Barnet
- Having a limited number of car club vehicles in Controlled Parking Zones and other non-specific bays
- Exploring ways of accessing vehicles at short notice for anyone, including business users
- Increasing access to vehicles for low income families or households that perhaps are not able to afford to own a car
- Ways to reduce car ownership, in turn creating more parking spaces in residential areas
Click here to take part in the consultation, which closes on 27 February.
21 February 2018