Car club membership up 60% in Waltham Forest

DriveNow cars can be parked in any residential bay in Waltham Forest

DriveNow cars can be parked in any residential bay in Waltham Forest

The number of car club bays in Waltham Forest is to go up from 37 to 45 to reflect a rise of nearly 60% in car members over the past year. There are now more than 4,000 car club members in the borough, said the council. Funding for the eight new ZipCar bays has been sourced from Section 106 payments that developers are obliged to make towards improvements in infrastructure in the local area.

A second car club service is provided by DriveNow, which launched in the borough in February 2015. While Zipcar vehicles must be collected and dropped off at dedicated bays, DriveNow vehicles can use any legal parking bay in Hackney, Islington and Haringey.

DriveNow vehicles can also be parked in any legal bay in the south of Waltham Forest.

A Waltham Forest spokesman said that DriveNow has made a “marked impact” on the numbers of residents choosing to use car clubs.

Between them, Zipcar and DriveNow have over 4,000 members in the borough, according to the council.

The authority says that car owners who drive less than 6,000 to 8,000 miles a year could save on average £3,500 a year by switching to a car club.

By December 2015 the number of Zipcar members stood at 3,174 members – 20% higher than the 2,637 members it had a year earlier – while DriveNow had over 1,000 local members, the council said.

Clyde Loakes, deputy leader and cabinet member for environment, said that car ownership in the borough has fallen to nearly 50%. He told Parking Review: “We have excellent transport links and we know that a high proportion of our residents already rely on them to commute into work in the City and the West End.

“With Lea Bridge Station opening in a matter of months our residents will also soon be able to get to either Stratford City or Tottenham Hale in just five minutes. It is understandable that many of those people would also be interested in options like car clubs as opposed to having the expense of owning a car that they cannot or simply do not want to drive for the majority of the week.”

Loakes says the borough will see 12,000 new homes by 2020, with most of the new developments being designated car free. “Couple this with the £27m we are spending through our Mini-Holland programme to make it a safer and friendlier place to walk and cycle, and the continuing significant regeneration that has already seen a cinema return to the borough for the first time in a decade, as well as new shops, restaurants and leisure facilities, and you can see why fewer people see the need for a car.

“As more residents choose to shop and spend their leisure time within the borough, so the share of journeys made by foot or bike increases. Add in other factors like internet shopping and supermarkets delivering food to your door and for many the reliance on a car decreases. Obviously some people do still need a car, and from time to time many of us will need to make use of one, even if we don’t own one.”