Results tagged “Whizzgo” from Birmingham Mail - Lighter Footprints

We have three adult offspring and only one of the five of us has a car. Only our oldest, who has young children, has a car, as we did until five years ago.

Although I recommend alternative forms of transport, when and where they are available, there are times when a car is the best option for your desired, or required, destination.

Before we stopped owning a car we had never calculated how much it was costing us. We had a fair idea of the weekly fuel and maintenance costs, but we didn't add on a proportion of the insurance, road tax and depreciation. We did calculate the average weekly cost in 2004, for the six years we owned a second hand, Ford Mondeo Estate car. The weekly cost averaged £57 for our annual mileage of about 3,000 miles and this did not include parking costs. I'm not sure what percentage one should add to that for 2009 prices, but this is clearly a real luxury for households on a restricted budget.

People have all sorts of reasons for their dependence on a car, some are justified but others are not. In Birmingham, in addition to a good public transport network, we have a choice of opportunities to rent a car, to share car journeys or to share use of a private car.

Car share Birmingham is a scheme for approved employers in Birmingham and is managed by Birmingham City Council.

Liftshare is a free, web based organisation that is useful for people who have some flexibility about dates and wish to travel along popular routes.

Whizzgo is a pay-by-the-hour, private car hire company, with cars based in Birmingham and ten other cities in England. This enables you to combine the use of a car with trains and coaches for long journeys.

You can also make private arrangements with friends to extend your, or their, car insurance to share car use on an agreed basis.

Please use the comments column to tell us about your experiences with any of these opportunities.