CityCyclingEdinburgh was launched on the 27th of October 2009 as "an experiment".
IT’S TRUE!
CCE is 15years old!
Well done to ALL posters
It soon became useful and entertaining. There are regular posters, people who add useful info occasionally and plenty more who drop by to watch. That's fine. If you want to add news/comments it's easy to register and become a member.
RULES No personal insults. No swearing.
not resolvedI see they've now got a couple of vans, which I was thinking might be useful. I hire one a couple of times a year, and while the annual £50 membership plus a couple of hours charge each time might be more expensive I'd probably use them more often than just now for a few things which I'd otherwise put off or have to borrow other peoples' time/cars/roof racks.
Good points? Bad points?
Guy at the Merchiston Community Council meetings hates them ... partly because of the car spaces, and partly because he says they are subsidized so unfair competition for other car rentals, which don't get the perks. Criticism from that quarter mostly just convinces me that they must be a good thing. We'll join once we get UK licences.
Other car rentals don't hire by the hour, which is a drawback for me - quite often I just need one for a couple of hours to shift a load of stuff from the back garden to the tip; or to fetch a load of materials from B&Q and the like (building a chicken run extension in October, which is what got me thinking about joining).
Funny as well having someone moan about there being less car spaces available for cars because they're being used by... cars.
Hi Anth,
I'm a member of the car club and it works very well for me indeed. I have hired the van on market street twice and it did the job very well. The central location was excellent although some hire companies like Enterprise will pick you up from home, take you to the car hire place to complete the paperwork and you can drive from there.
On a cost basis you can get really good 24 hour deals elsewhere especially if you book well in advance and take a van at off peak times. I have done deals where I pick vans up at 5pm and drop them off at 8am the next morning. If sponteneity is important then you can't beat the car club. You can check if the car is free from an iPhone and reserve it for yourself.
There are of course over 100 cars dotted around Edinburgh so in terms of 'temptation' some pretty complex and fun logistics can be had if you throw your bike in the back. The estate cars are pretty good too. They make a mountain biking trip to Glentress Forest quite easy without having to remove the bike wheels.
As far as subsidies go having attended many a car club AGM there is no council subsidy for the car club. It is purely a commercial enterprise. My guess is that the relatively high volume of rentals by the council helps keep the car club afloat. The vehicles near the council headquarters are for sole council use during office hours then we can use them after 5pm. The club has yet to make a profit and will only do so once it reaches a certain size. New members are therefore not just welcome but essential. If you have any more questions I'd be delighted to try to help out.
One last thing with regard to parking. Each car club car takes 25 cars off the road that folk would normally buy, this is according to the car club web site.
Just as well because most parking bays have just one car on them but they have
2 or 3 car spaces for future expansion. This means in the short term you can park for free in any of the other bays. This is a benefit they don't advertise.
I rented a van (via a car club member) to move some bike boxes. Wrapped job easily.
I think the car club is essential as the city still has lower car ownership than many places.
The CC helps a great deal and means that road space is used more efficiently.
I think they're great too. I was just struck to discover that not everyone thinks that. Must get out of my bubble more often....
"Guy at the Merchiston Community Council meetings hates them ... Criticism from that quarter mostly just convinces me that they must be a good thing."
I like that reasoning :-)
For me the ECCC was unattractive because the nearest cars and bays were a half an hour's brisk walk away. But ECCC + folding bike could be a good solution!
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