Where in Ipswich should the Wombat cars be based?

[Charles]

One of the exhibitors at the St Margaret's Energy Day last February
that caused a lot of interest was the car sharing club Wombat. Justin
Hunt of Wombat came back to talk to at the Transport evening meeting
of the St Margaret's Environment Group on 15 November and it was felt
that it would be good to have some Wombat cars available in Ipswich.
The purpose of this posting is to establish if there is sufficient
interest car sharing in Ipswich to proceed.

Saving you money
If you drive less than 6,000 miles per year then a car club could save
you up to £3,500 a year. Replacing a second family car with car club
membership is likely to bring even more cash savings.
A lot of people don't notice the true costs of running a car, but when
you add up the cost of tax, MOT, fuel, servicing, repairs,
depreciation and parking you could be looking at an average of over a
hundred pounds a week!
Car clubs give you greater flexibility, charging only for the time you
use the car, not when it is sitting on the drive. You can free up your
budget to spend on something more exciting!
Click on the link below to see how much money you could save

http://www.carclubs.org.uk/22/benefits/benefits.html

And greener too
Joining a car club, instead of running your own car, is a big step
towards greening your environmental footprint. In one easy move, you
can cut your carbon emissions, cut your contribution to congestion,
and cut the clutter on your street.
In the UK, the average car owner produces over 2 tonnes of carbon
dioxide driving each year. Joining a car club can drastically reduce
this as car club cars are more environmentally friendly and are used
more efficiently.
On top of this one car club car replaces up to 20 private cars - you
can see how much that will reduce traffic jams, and free up parking
spaces.
It's a win-win situation! Why wouldn't you?

If you are using your car less than 6000 miles a year or less than 14
hours per week then Wombat will save you money.

Please contact Charles Croydon to let him know you are interested and
where you think the Wombat cars should be located. Apart from St
Margaret’s, St John’s has been identified as a possible area. Please
say what areas you think would be best.

Charles Croydon's contact details are:-
42 Tuddenham Road
Ipswich
IP4 2SP

Tel.: 01473-214116 (Home)
07854776870 (Mobile with answer phone)

Email: charles...@hotmail.com


In March 2009 Wombat received Suffolk's Greenest County Award in the
Communities Transport Category. This is in recognition of the
contribution the Convert Your Car model will make to Suffolk's goal of
reducing its carbon footprint

Wombat have teamed up with other car clubs across the country (and the
world) so
you can use them too. As a member of Wombat you can access car clubs
in London,
Paris, the USA plus Cambridge, Bath, Norwich and others. So for long
distance
trips, take the train and have access to a car at the other end.

For more information about Wombat click on
http://www.wombatcarclub.co.uk/

[Peter Miller]

On 20 Nov 2009, at 07:54, Charles wrote:

> One of the exhibitors at the St Margaret's Energy Day last February
> that caused a lot of interest was the car sharing club Wombat. Justin
> Hunt of Wombat came back to talk to at the Transport evening meeting
> of the St Margaret's Environment Group on 15 November and it was felt
> that it would be good to have some Wombat cars available in Ipswich.
> The purpose of this posting is to establish if there is sufficient
> interest car sharing in Ipswich to proceed.
>

I have created an editatable 'Umapper' map showing some possibly car
club bay locations across Ipswich, positioned to maximise access to a
small number of vehicles by both business and private users. When we
have an agreed list will should approach the council for seed funding
to cover some of the first 2 years costs as usage builds. First of all
though we have to solve the chicken/egg problem where there are no
cars so no demand so no cars etc.

It is editable - feel free to add comments to the existing bays, add
new bays or even move them around.


http://www.umapper.com/maps/view/id/48177/



Regards,



Peter

> --
>
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google
> Groups "Cycle Ipswich" group.
> To post to this group, send email to cycle-...@googlegroups.com.
> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to cycle-ipswic...@googlegroups.com
> .
> For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/cycle-ipswich?hl=
> .
>
>

[John Taylor]

Thanks Peter. I've added a few markers: some at the Park and Ride sites and some in the Residents Parking Zones in town. If you have two cars with residents permits that's an extra £95 a year, so a car club would probably be even more attractive if it meant getting rid of one or both of your own vehicles.
 
I definately agree that a high profile one at the station would be good, best keep it away from the taxi rank though.
 
Do we have an idea of what the seed costs may be?
 
A main driver for me to use a car club would be if the car available was more efficient than my one, or if it was an electric car.
 
 
John

 

 
> From: peter....@itoworld.com
> To: cycle-...@googlegroups.com
> Subject: Where in Ipswich should the Wombat cars be based?
> Date: Fri, 20 Nov 2009 13:07:12 +0000
>
>
> On 20 Nov 2009, at 07:54, Charles wrote:
>
> > One of the exhibitors at the St Margaret's Energy Day last February
> > that caused a lot of interest was the car sharing club Wombat. Justin
> > Hunt of Wombat came back to talk to at the Transport evening meeting
> > of the St Margaret's Environment Group on 15 November and it was felt
> > that it would be good to have some Wombat cars available in Ipswich.
> > The purpose of this posting is to establish if there is sufficient
> > interest car sharing in Ipswich to proceed.
> >
>
> I have created an editatable 'Umapper' map showing some possibly car
> club bay locations across Ipswich, positioned to maximise access to a
> small number of vehicles by both business and private users. When we
> have an agreed list will should approach the council for seed funding
> to cover some of the first 2 years costs as usage builds. First of all
> though we have to solve the chicken/egg problem where there are no
> cars so no demand so no cars etc.
>
> It is editable - feel free to add comments to the existing bays, add
> new bays or even move them around.
>
>
> http://www.umapper.com/maps/view/id/48177/
>
>
>
> Regards,
>
>
>
> Peter

---

New! Receive and respond to mail from other email accounts from within Hotmail Find out how.

[Peter Miller]

On 20 Nov 2009, at 16:05, John Taylor wrote:

Thanks Peter. I've added a few markers: some at the Park and Ride sites and some in the Residents Parking Zones in town. If you have two cars with residents permits that's an extra £95 a year, so a car club would probably be even more attractive if it meant getting rid of one or both of your own vehicles.
 
I definately agree that a high profile one at the station would be good, best keep it away from the taxi rank though.
 
Do we have an idea of what the seed costs may be?
 
A main driver for me to use a car club would be if the car available was more efficient than my one, or if it was an electric car.

Thanks John - residents parking bay areas are certainly a good indicator and incentive to join as you say.

The additional cost of having car within the car club using the 'convert a car' scheme[1] is about £1400 per year (to cover technology, group insurance and Wombat office costs). There are also savings because the person who owns the car doesn't need to continue their own insurance so the overall additional cost is more like £1K per year per car.

From that on can deduct the income from rental which is £2-£3 per hour or £20-£30 per day so after 50 days of rental or 500 hours of rental the costs are covered. However, it takes people time to get round to joining - especially if they have a car already in which case they often wait until it dies on them which can be some time. In other words it is the point where someone is thinking of buying a car that they are most likely to join a club but the club must exist at the time they are considering it.  Income in the first year may therefor not be that good.

In consideration of this, I would suggest that the council should be encouraged to pay  £1K for the first year, £750 for the second year and £500 for the third year per car. In time the council could actually get an income from the car bays. Councils in London actually now charge the car club operators significant sums of money for each on-street bay.

The cost of supporting a 20 car scheme would therefore be £20K in the first year,  £15K in the second and £10K in the third, totalling £45K which less than the cost of installing a single toucan crossing. We would need to check these figures more carefully and get a sense as to how quickly they could become profitable fore committing to them.

 

[1] http://www.wombatconvertyourcar.co.uk/

Regards,

Peter

--

[Brian Holder]

Charles, we're thinking of having one at UCS, down on the waterfront.

Brian

-----Original Message-----
From: Charles [mailto:charles...@hotmail.com]
Sent: 20 November 2009 07:54
To: Cycle Ipswich
Subject: Where in Ipswich should the Wombat cars be based?

--

You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Cycle Ipswich" group.
To post to this group, send email to cycle-...@googlegroups.com.
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to cycle-ipswic...@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/cycle-ipswich?hl=.

University Campus Suffolk is one of the UK's newest higher education institutions and officially opened on 1 August 2007. The main campus is located in Ipswich with centres in Bury St Edmunds, Great Yarmouth, Lowestoft and Otley. The new Waterfront building in Ipswich opened in September 2008. Visit www.ucs.ac.uk for further details.

University Campus Suffolk (UCS) is the trading name of University Campus Suffolk Ltd, a company registered in England & Wales, registered number 5078498, registered office Waterfront Building, Neptune Quay, Ipswich, IP4 1QJ

[Peter Miller]

On 24 Nov 2009, at 09:48, Brian Holder wrote:

> Charles, we're thinking of having one at UCS, down on the waterfront.

Great stuff. I have moved the 'car bay' from the customs house to the
university car park and have 'promoted' it to the first phase. I have
also demote the Kings Avenue bay to phase 2 as it is very close to the
university site.

This location fits very well with the Waterfront Transport study's
suggestion that transport options should be available at either end of
the star lane gyratory to discourage traffic on the link itself. It
should be attractive to a large number of people to the east of the
town.

I am keen to see if the St Mary at Stoke would allow their car park to
be used for the proposed car on Stoke Street/Rectory Road. It would be
great to have 'learning' supporting one at one end of the gyratory and
'faith' at the other! The third one on High Street should possibly be
'mammon' (being next to the shopping area). Possibly I am reading too
much into all this, but it will be good to have a clear champion for
the bays.

Fyi, other car club operators have sorted out insurance for drivers
under 21yo to fit better with the student population. Wombat are still
restricted to 21yo but do be aware that a lower age limit may be
possible.


Regards,



Peter