CAR CLUB

The Hackney Car Club Scheme is part of our wider work to increase opportunities for everyone in the borough and make the area safer, cleaner and greener.

So what is a Car Club?

A car club offers you the convenience of being able to use a clean, modern and reliable vehicle for those trips you cannot do by using public transport, cycling or walking.

Car Club cars are commonly parked on-street in their own designated bay. Sessions as short as 30 minutes can be booked by Car Club members by phone or via the internet. Cars are placed in areas where they are easily accessible for residents and businesses and it’s our aim to ensure that there is a Car Club bay within 5 to 10 minutes walk of each household. They provide a convenient alternative to using a privately owned vehicle because Car Club members only pay for what they use and therefore do not have to worry about tax, insurance, parking permits, servicing or repairs. There are none of the hassles of owning and maintaining a car.

Members have access to a car 24 hours a day, seven days a week, with none of the worry and expense of insurance, resident parking permits, garage fees, maintenance and all the other bureaucratic burdens that car owners have to carry.

Why are we doing this scheme?

There are three key reasons why we are developing this scheme in Hackney:

• to relieve parking pressures within the borough;
• to reduce the reliance on the private motor-vehicle by residents and businesses;
• to improve the level of social inclusion experienced by residents who can not afford their own car

How will the Car Club work?

The most efficient way to deliver this scheme in a cost effective way in Hackney is to work with an existing company that has experience of setting up and running Car Clubs in London. Streetcar has been commissioned as Hackney’s Car Club operator.

The Hackney Car Club Scheme is run by Streetcar, the largest car club operator in the United Kingdom. By joining Streetcar you will have access the vehicles located in our borough and the neighbouring boroughs of Islington, Tower Hamlets and City of London. You will also be able to book any of the other Streetcar car club vehicles spread over 700 locations in the UK.

As a member you can book a car online or over the phone as little as 30 minutes ahead of time and use remotely activated smartcards to unlock the vehicle. At the end of the journey you return your car to its dedicated on-street Car Club parking space, so you are always guaranteed a space.

Residents and businesses can become a member for as little as £50 a year with the cars starting from £3.95 per hour, with the first 30 miles of petrol free.

The cars are available 24 hours a day for rent by the hour, day, week or month.

If you would like to see where the closest bay to you will be on a map, it can be downloaded from the link on the right hand side of this page.

About the Car Club Parking Bays

Car Club cars are currently placed in their own on-street parking bays and will continue to operate in this way for all future bays implemented within Hackney.

Only the Car Club vehicle can park in these bays and they will be designated with the wording ‘Car Club Only’ on the road way and will be enforceable by Parking Attendants. The location of these parking bays has been selected so as many people in the borough as possible can have access to a Car Club car. The map of all bays can be downloaded from the link on the right hand side of this page.

Some of the locations are in areas where there is demand for parking. We anticipate that over time, introducing Car Clubs in these areas of parking stress could lead to a reduced demand for parking. We will be monitoring to see whether this happens, working along with the Hackney Car Club Scheme operator, Streetcar.

Hackney Car Club scheme link

Street Car link

(clic to enlarge)
Hackney Car Club bay map

Crash! (1971) Part 1 of 2 - JG Ballard

(clic to follow the link)

Shot for the BBC two years before his notorious novel of the same name was published, the film followed Ballard as he outlined some of the ideas that would later form the basis of the book (itself adapted for the screen by David Cronenberg in 1996).

for more info : De Domenici Blog

The future of our food

www.transitiontownbrixton.org

How many cars?

United States: 800 cars for 1000 inhabitants
European Union: 600 cars for 1000 inhabitants (2006 data)
56% of motorised families have 1 car, 37% have 2 cars, 7% have 3 cars and more.
18% of families in town don’t have a car and less than 10% in countryside.
(source:Mobilités urbaines, Jean-pierre Orfeuil, 2008.)

Since the 90’s we observe a world generalization of individual cars. In China like in India there are 15 cars for 1000 inhabitants but this motorisation rate has grown far more quickly than in other countries between 1990 and 2003 and it will probably grow faster, especially because those countries are the most populated in the world. While Car industry, in developed countries, is at the moment in serious difficulties, China car purchase has been increased by 5%; on million of cars have been sold in March 2009. (Le Courier International, nº964, Avril 2009) This growth is related to the reduction of taxes on car purchase, which is part of the government economic plan.
What can be the consequences if those countries will reach the same amount of car than U.S. or Europe?

AIR BEAR

(clic to follow the link)

Alejandro Aravena public lecture at the LSE 27th April 6.30pm

chilean architect Alejandro Aravena is giving a public lecture at the LSE on the evening of Monday 27th April.
For more informatios see: http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/cities

Project Elemental-Alejandro Aravena
http://www.elementalchile.cl/category/vivienda/iquique/

Old Mini Cooper, Vice, Jonnie Craig.

Bikeday-Hackney city farm

The Electric Car is on the crest !

‘The city in 25 years will be public transports and electric cab’ said the visionary Philippe Guédon from Bolloré group.
Can we talk about sustainable innovation for the car industry?

The car has created in the 20th century the conditions of its own depreciation by all the negative effects it has generated:
cities congestion, environment deterioration, mortality by accident…

The car industry has ignored this for a long time but today, car future depends on it capacity of overcoming. Regarding to the rarefaction of petrol and global warming, the car industry needs to be innovative in greener transports.
Between all the possibilities that have been studied, the electric car stands out, but the type of electricity that will be used for those new car generations is questioned. In Germany, Bjorn klusmann, from the federal union of sustainable energy proclaimed that the sustainable energies are able to cover the needs in electricity for the million of vehicles that will be in Germany’s road for 2020. But, at that time, the German industries give priority to the energy coming from nuclear and coal.
How much more energy would we need if automobiles went onto electric grid?

The prime minister Gordon Brown projects a positive vision for the new ‘low carbon’ British economy that will emerge from the recession. He said that the government would provide incentives to help the car industry become a market leader across the world for electric and hybrid cars. The European Investment Bank approved a £340m loan to Jaguar Land Rover to develop ‘green’ vehicles, with a further £373m to be split between Nissan’s plants in Sunderland and Spain. (The Independent, 8 April 2009)

But is Electric cars really a solution for our cities disease?
The flood of automobiles overwhelmed city centres make it unbearable and the solution is certainly not to increase infrastructures as people acquired cars even if those ones are electric! We need to take a new look at the car as individual property in city centre. We need to aimed more at solidarity based mobility; green, shared, public... We’ve ended with the speech of 50’s government about the ‘right’ to drive a car as ‘individual liberty’ whatever ‘the cost of it’.

In the meanwhile, Paris is on the spot!
After the success with ‘Velib’, Paris is now keen to introduced ‘Autolib’ for 2010, which is basically the same kind of free service but with electric cars. The monthly rent subscription will cost 15 to 20€ and 4 to 5 € by each 30mn. (Novethic)
This system, as car sharing, encourages users to rent a car only when they need and don’t have to look after. But it’s also a space profit for everyone, if the charging battery time is quick enough, because the cars will be in constant use, reducing by the way the parking surfaces and allowing public space to re-integrates cities.

London, lag behind?…
The Mayor, Boris Johnson, is studying the ‘Autolib’ system after the opening of a ‘Velib’ in the city for 2010. He also announced the creation of The London Electric vehicle Partnership to support the use of electric car in the city.

To be continued…

*picture: piled up electric car in free service imagined by the research center MIT Media Lab

CROYDOMIA BY Birds Portchmouth Russum architects

(clic to enlarge)

Birds Portchmouth Russum architects (link) - Croydromia - Croydon 1993

Quatre parkings situés à la périphérie de Croydon (Sud de Londres) sont reliés par une nouvelle boucle et un parc "central". Ce dernier coupe le centre ville en deux. Les parkings sont revigorés par l'ajout, sur les toitures, de "dromes" expressifs et colorés qui abritent de nouveaux espaces de loisirs. Les parkings et les connections de l'espace public qui les relient au centre confèrent à ces structures salutaires une qualité civique.

SURPRISE !

LATE SPRING

Spring is definitely here !!
And we are ready after a feeding winter :
let's continue