A new report by the Transport Committee of the London Assembly has highlighted the failings of TfL in helping develop the city’s car clubs which, despite being supported by the Mayor’s Transport Strategy, are shrinking in terms of users, vehicles and operators.
In the foreword to the report, Elly Baker AM, Chair of the Transport Committee summed up the problem: “There just doesn’t seem to be any drive to make car clubs a genuine option for more Londoners,” says Air Quality News.
While car club use is broadly increasing across the UK, London has long been at the centre of picture and there it is decreasing. The number of active car club users in capital fell 22% between 2021 and 2023, while the number of cars in the scheme fell 18%.
In research undertaken by the Transport Committee last December, only 8% of people questioned expected to use a car club vehicle in the next 12 months.
In 2022 Transport for London announced that they would support car clubs in London, issuing six commitments to that end. However TfL’s evidence to the committee – delivered by Alina Tuerk, Head of Roads and Freight Strategy – was that TfL were worried that more car club vehicles could ‘lead to an increased take-up of car trip[s] by those who currently do not own a car.’
In response to this, Andy Flood, Principal Transport Planner at Richmond and Wandsworth Councils, told the committee: “Every single piece of research that I have seen, including the CoMoUK annual reports and international reports, show that car clubs have a net benefit in terms of reducing car ownership and reducing car use.”
The committee felt that TfL’s position was not supported by any compelling evidence and that their research was flawed – for example, only one of the nine papers TfL referred to in their desktop research supported the claim that car clubs might increase overall car use, while five said the opposite.
Elly Baker AM, added: “The benefits of car clubs are obvious – allowing Londoners to use a car when needed, without the ongoing costs of owning a private vehicle, and delivering a positive impact on street space and congestion. Yet TfL’s approach is overlooking these benefits, and not providing the support that the industry needs to grow.”
(Pic: Zip Car)
