Easing parking problems or stopping residents parking near their homes?


image: zipcar.co.uk

At the end of Wandsworth Council announced that it was the first borough offering car-sharing ‘zipzone’. The scheme allows car club members to pick up and drop off hire cars on virtually any borough street. Residents who are car owners have discovered that this can mean the cars stay in their street for longer periods than a owner driven car and they 'block' the street residents from parking close to their homes.

Conventional car clubs require members to return vehicles to the same designated parking space, so this new operating model called Zipcar Flex is designed to give greater flexibility and potentially lower costs.

However, not all residents see it this way. A resident on Bangalore Street in West Putney told PutneySW15: "We now seem to have at least two of these Zip Cars parked in Bangalore street on a long term basis. This is preventing residents from parking."

He emailed the council who responded: "We are expecting there to be no more than 150 or so of these Flex vehicles parked across the whole borough on any day, and if they are parked in a particular street it is likely to be because someone on the street has used the service (in the same way that any other car parked on a street is likely to have been used by someone in the area). Over time the cars are redistributed as different members make different journeys, so one person takes the car from A to B, the next from B to C, etc. There are several thousand Zipcar members in Wandsworth alone, and these residents are the users of the service. This type of scheme gives people access to a car for journeys when they need one but without having to own a car themselves."

The Bangalore resident was impressed with the speedy response from the council and the offer to ensure that Zipcars monitor his street and redistribute the cars if they appear to stay too long. The council and Zipcars believe that: " ... as the service becomes more established we expect the vehicles to be redistributed more frequently by members using the scheme."

A spokesperson for the council told this website: "The scheme helps to reduce overall car ownership and members don’t drive as much as owners. So you end up with reduced parking pressures and reduced traffic and pollution."

August is not the month to see the true impact on residents as many are away on summer holidays, meaning the parking areas are clearer than usual - autumn may clarify the question. What are your experiences of parking? Share your experiences on the forum.