Car sharing has been shown to work in Berlin, with forty neighbours sharing three cars. With adequate public transport, these people find a car a necessity only a few times a month. On these occasions they call up the neighbourhood car rental Stadt Auto and reserve one of the three cars stationed on the block where they live. They each have keys to all three vehicles and reckon on an 80 per cent chance of obtaining a car.
The Kendon family in Sheffield share the use of a second hand Volkswagen Passat with friends who live nearby, with whom they split the cost of purchase and share the running costs. Both households have signed a written agreement, laying down for instance that each family is entitled to two weeks' uninterrupted use each year. At other times, each family has responsibility for the car for a week at a time. 'If you need to use the car in your own week, you have priority,' says Adrian Kendon, 'but if you want to use it in the other family's week then you have to arrange it with them, or hire a car.'
There is an agreed 5p charge payable to a joint bank account for each mile driven, and the families settle up on expenses, including petrol, once a month. The car is insured in one person's name, with the other participants listed as named drivers. The AA car breakdown service requires a member of each family to be full members, even if sharing one car. A cheaper option is to choose a scheme where the car, not the driver, is insured, such as the Environmental Transport Association, using GESA Assistance.