A Car Club for Winchester - A cheaper and greener way to take to the road.
| Published: 2nd May 2008 18:47 |
Winchester City Council and Whizzgo are working together to launch a new Car Club service in Winchester. The Car Club will offer drivers all the benefits of having a new car, but without the expense and hassle of owning one.
Car Club members will have access to a brand new Citroen car, for less than £5 an hour - including petrol, mileage, road tax, insurance, servicing, breakdown, recovery, maintenance and cleaning. What's more, independent research shows that Car Club members can cut their total transport bills by half.
As well as cutting transport bills in half, separate studies have also demonstrated that the provision of Car Clubs results in a significant reduction in car miles driven, with members walking or cycling more, using public transport more often or simply re-arranging how they make journeys.
The first WhizzGo cars will be available for Car Club members in specially designated bays provided by Winchester City Council in their off-street car parks in Gladstone Street, Jewry Street, Colebrook Street and Middle Brook Street.
Belonging to a car club makes it easier for people to meet their transport needs without running their own car, or in some cases without owning a second car. This means people are free to choose the best option for each journey. For every car club vehicle provided up to 20 cars are taken off congested roads. As more and more people turn to Car Clubs as a way of meeting their driving needs, the levels and impacts of car related pollution are set to drop significantly.
Charlotte Morton, founder and managing director of WhizzGo, says: "This is a fantastically convenient service. The car is right on your doorstep. We take away all the hassle of owning a car. We deal with the maintenance, servicing, breakdowns, cleaning, insurance, road licence and MOT, all this for just £5 an hour."
The first WhizzGo vehicles in the city are all Citroens, there will be two C3 and two C1 models, each with power steering and air conditioning as standard, finished in distinctive arctic silver with the discreet red, amber and green WhizzGo logo.
Car Club members will be able to book a car by the hour or the day, up to only half-an-hour before they are needed. Car Club members receive a smart card for access to the cars and, inside each car, mobile phone technology provides an internet link to the booking centre, letting members know how long they have left on a booking and allowing members to make or extend bookings from the car.
Andy Hickman, Head of Access and Infrastructure at Winchester City Council, said: "It's great to have a Car Club in Winchester; I think it will be a real bonus for both residents and businesses, offering them flexibility in how they make their travel choices. A considerable amount of traffic growth in recent years has been due to the increasing levels of second-car ownership and we think that car clubs can offer a real alternative for those users."
The Winchester Car Club will be launched outside the Winchester Guildhall at 10am on Friday 9 May 2008, from where the convoy of vehicles will be driven to their new homes around the city.
Just some of the people who will find Car Club membership particularly useful:
- Business people can travel to work in the city by public transport and use WhizzGo cars to meet clients.
- Families can avoid buying a second car to transport the kids and shopping.
- Occasional car users can avoid the costs of buying and running a vehicle.
- People living in the city centre, who have many of their amenities on hand and easy access to public transport, can save on the price of a parking space.
- Those who want to reduce their carbon footprint and take active steps to reduce pollution on the roads
WhizzGo uses innovative technology in each car includes an on-board computer, which restricts entry to members who have booked the car and records the time they spend in a car and how many miles they travel.
Once members have booked a car on the internet at www.whizzgo.co.uk or by phone on 0870 446 6000, booking information will be electronically relayed to the car, which will open automatically to the member who has booked it - at the wave of the member's smart card.
Members can talk directly to the WhizzGo team using the car's on-board computer, which also has a port to connect an MP3 music player.
Potential car thieves should not bother trying to steal a WhizzGo car because they will not be able to drive away without a smart card and correct pin number.
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