Our involvement in the CoMoUK Annual Car Club Surveys

A car club provides an efficient way for people to share cars instead of owning them. CoMoUK has been carrying out annual surveys covering Great Britain since 2008, with separate surveys for England and Wales, London and Scotland since 2011/12. These surveys provide a robust evidence base to assess the impact of shared cars and support the growth and development of car clubs.

Steer has been closely involved in the development and refinement of the Annual Surveys for CoMoUK. We have worked with CoMoUK and incorporated feedback from within the industry to further develop the surveys. The survey is used by car club operators, local and central government to demonstrate the positive impacts of car clubs and inform policy development.

How we helped: London Car Club Survey (2018)

Steer led the eleventh edition of CoMoUK’s annual London Car Club Survey for 2017/18. The survey aimed to provide insights on levels of usage, the benefits of car clubs, and their impact on travel behaviour.

We collected data from 6 operators, as well as ~ 5,400 of their members. Participating operators were: Bluecity, Co-wheels, DriveNow, E-CAR/Ubeequo, Enterprise Car Club and Zipcar.

The survey focused on three different car club models: round-trip and flexible, and a new addition of point-to-point car clubs based on Bluecity, which was the first point-to-point car club in London.

In addition to surveying members, we analysed data provided by car club operators on their service, such as the characteristics of their fleet and their members. We also produced a profile of the car club fleet for London between 2017/18. Steer also provided CoMoUK with recommendations on improvements to survey methodology and data collection for the following year.

Successes and outcomes

We found that car clubs have the potential to reduce levels of private car ownership and overall use:

• 41% of round trip and flexible members and 26% of point-to-point members would have bought a first or additional private vehicle had they not joined a car club, equating to 100,000 deferred car purchases.
• 18% of round trip, 15% of flexible members and 10% of point to point members have sold a private vehicle after joining a car club and no longer own a vehicle, equating to 42,000 additional car-free households across Greater London.

We also found the travel patterns of car club members may help reduce traffic congestion levels in London:

• 75% of round-trip car club bookings in London start during off-peak or weekend periods

The average miles driven by a car club member in both car club and private cars is 3,602 miles for round trip members, 4,391 miles for flexible members and 4,001 miles for point-to-point members. The Greater London average for residents that own at least one private vehicle is 6,300 miles (NTS, 2017).

Read the full report and view the infographic