By Emily Kerr<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Emily Kerr is the founder of ShareOurCars.com<\/a><\/u>, a car-sharing advocacy organisation. @shareourcars on Twitter.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Cars can be convenient. But private car ownership is expensive<\/a> (c. <\/em>\u00a34k a year in the UK). Cars cause congestion, take up space on the streets, and threaten the safety of pedestrians and cyclists. Exhaust fumes damage people\u2019s health and are one of the UK\u2019s biggest contributors to the climate crisis<\/a> . Car sharing offers a potential solution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sharing a vehicle takes cars off the streets and reduces the emissions associated with manufacture (25\u201350% of each car\u2019s lifetime emissions). As I\u2019ve learned from personal experience, if you don\u2019t own a car, you\u2019re much less likely to use one \u2013 which means you cycle and walk more, and get fitter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Car sharing can be informal \u2013 borrowing a car from friends or family \u2013 or commercial \u2013 lift-sharing, car clubs and \u2018Airbnb for cars\u2019 platforms like Hiyacar<\/a> and Turo. As the founder of campaign group ShareOurCars I\u2019m supportive of all types of car sharing, but I\u2019m particularly interested in the informal and community varieties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u2019ve spoken to people with all kinds of different arrangements. A man who shares his EV with ten neighbours he has added to his insurance policy. A woman who shares her car with her four flatmates, all contributing equal amounts and scheduling their usage via a Google doc. Two women who shared a car back in 1990, alternating usage weekly and deciding a year in advance which week they had the car so they could plan ahead and book holidays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I collaborated with Hiyacar to create a new type of car sharing, called \u2018closed loop\u2019. A car owner can set up their own closed loop, of neighbours or friends, and only people in that group can borrow the car (or cars, in the case of bigger groups). It uses Hiyacar\u2019s tech, insurance and booking system which makes it easy to manage, but it\u2019s restricted to a trusted group of people. The car owner is paid a fee when their car is used, and by making their car available to other people they can help drive down car ownership.<\/p>\n\n\n\n EVs are particularly in demand but we\u2019ve got various types of cars working in small or big loops, they just have to be less than 15 years old. It\u2019s particularly good in areas which are too small to support conventional car clubs like Co Wheels. But in areas where car clubs operate it can help make more cars available closer by or for longer periods. In my area, many people use a couple of types of sharing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So if you have a car which you don\u2019t use every day, maybe you could think about sharing it informally, or on one of the peer-to-peer rental services like Hiyacar, Karshare<\/a>, Getaround<\/a> and Turo<\/a>. If you prefer to keep your borrowers to a local group or list of friends, you can easily set up a closed loop. See ShareOurCars.com<\/a><\/u> for more details.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you\u2019re wondering whether you really need to own a car, or might be able to manage with one car rather than two in your household, it is worth considering car sharing.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\nHow does it work?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Closed-loop sharing groups<\/h2>\n\n\n\n