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@citygent
Carclubbing rocks. I have to be honest and say I've wrked at SC longer than any other company, just because it's a kickass place to work and you actually feel like your work is doing something for the city. It's a bit ridiculous that we all expect to own and park our own cars, when we're living ontop of one another in towerblocks as it is. There just isn't enough room for everyone to have their own car, let alone the environmental impact.
Another interesting thing about carclubs is how they completely change your driving habits. If it's cold outside and late at night, and you have a car outside your house, and you want some rizla from the shop a mile away. Youre going to be lazy and take the car. If you have to book a car and you see the direct cost of that trip being about £3, you make the effort to walk/cycle.
If everyone in London was a member of carclubs there would be hardly any traffic caused by needless trips, and public transport would have to improve.
It never feels like I'm fighting a losing battle, either. Well, when working in London. We just launched SC in Oxford and I did wonder if, like Mannheim I suppose, car ownership is just too much a part of the culture. Towns and Citys like that, are built for cars. Ringroads, bypasses, retail parks miles away from the city centre, etc. etc.
I know what it's like, cus I grew up in Wolverhampton. Where everybody, and I mean everybody, learns to drive as soon as they hit 17. It's mainly because public transport in the rest of the country sucks ass. There were only 4 buses a day to the town I lived in, which was 14 miles away from where I went to college...