Wednesday 29 October 2008

Commomwheels car sharing scheme

I had a demo of the new car sharing scheme in Newtown today. I think car sharing schemes are a great idea. They give people access to a car for when they need it without the hassle and expense of owning one. And what's more you get a guaranteed parking space!

In Newtown where I live parking pressures are tight. People say things like 'I don't go out in the evening because I don't want to lose my parking space'. It's in areas such as these where the car sharing scheme can help reduce parking pressures - as each car sharing scheme car can take around ten cars off of the road - help people to get around, and even save people money.

The fees are straight forward, you pay an hourly rate and then a cost per mile. Booking the car was very simple, just a case of logging onto the website and a few clicks later it was booked. If you've not got access to the Internet you can do it by phone.

I accessed the car – an efficient and modern Polo BlueMotion - via a swipe card, then I drove away. Petrol is done via a petrol card and insurance is done through Commonwheels. It was all very easy and straight forward.

In the future the council could even run its car pool cars with the car sharing scheme to increase the number of cars available in Reading.

I'd recommend that anyone who needs access to a car, wants to save money, or to do their bit for the planet, has a look at the Commonwheels website.

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