Would Streetcar work for our villages?

I spoke with Streetcar, to understand their plans and to try to push for one or more cars to be located in the village. Streetcar are an established commercial operator running in Cambridge. They currently have 5 cars available to public members distributed through the city. The nearest car to Histon & Impington is parked at Park Street car park, about a 3 mile cycle journey from the village.

They plan to expand their fleet significantly in 2010, to 20 cars. Their plans for 2010 are largely fixed, although they have not finalised parking spaces yet. They will not be able to provide a car north of the A14, but are likely to site a car somewhere on Histon Road, perhaps near Orchard Park, depending on where they can find a space. They will do a further expansion in 2011, and at this time they may be able to provide a car for Histon.

To be viable, Streetcar require around 50 members per car, and my research suggests they need each car to be used around 10 paid hours per day. This usage level is needed because Streetcar run new cars, which depreciate rapidly, they must pay their own staffing costs, and they must make a profit.

It seems likely that we will only be able to sustain a single Streetcar in the village for the foreseeable future, unless Streetcar find commercial members who can subsidise residential during their use as pool cars during daytime hours, which are less likely to be used by low-car-use residents.

Having only one or two streetcars in the village means frequent disappointment; most common timeslots will be booked up way in advance, and if the streetcar is booked in the evening or weekend it would be necessary to travel towards the city in order to access one parked at an alternative location, or to find another method of transport.

Streetcar Pricing

Streetcar pricing is quite high, reflecting the premium nature of their servicing offering. People who join pay for commercial support, flexible booking facilities (iphone etc), smartcard access, and access to brand new cars.
Their basic rate is £4.95 per hour for a small car (Polo) or £5.95 for a medium size car (Golf). Up to 30 miles per booking is included, and additional miles are charged at 23p per mile. Cars can be booked for a day (24 hours) at the rate of 10 hours (£49.50 for a Polo), or for a week at the cost of 5 days (£245). Bookings longer than 3 days get 200 free miles per day.

Streetcar have a high insurance excess, of £750. This can be reduced through monthly payments; to reduce excess to a normal £250 would cost £120 per year. We have not reduced the excess for the purposes of the comparison in the next section.

Car Club Pricing Comparisons

To compare costs between owning a private car, using HiCar, Streetcar, we defined five different ‘classifications’ of driver, based on distance travelled per year. Each classification has progressively higher usage. One of the classifications is ‘1 day commuter’ – someone who is the nominated car pool driver 1 day a week to take 3 colleagues to work, a 50 mile round trip.

We use a typical Histon private car in our estimates; a Ford focus, aged around 5 years old, worth £5,000, and decreasing in value by £1,000 per year.

Streetcar consistently comes out as most expensive for all driving patterns of 3,000 miles upwards, basically because, as a premium lifestyle car club, the driver gets the benefit of a brand new car, and premium service from the company.

We noticed that for weekend journeys Streetcar is very expensive, much more expensive than using Enterprise car rental, currently located in Histon, who have a 50% weekend use discount. So we also computed costs for someone who juggles both Streetcar and Enterprise, using Enterprise for any journeys of over 2 days that include a weekend.

In contrast, HiCar can price its services to attract drivers who drive 6,000 miles and under, and also to attract people who largely use their car to commute to work 1 day per week. Our pricing is due to our use of older vehicles, which depreciate much slower than Streetcars, and our voluntary management model.

Will Streetcar work for Histon & Impington?

Streetcar have an appealing offering for ultra-low drivers (< 2,000 miles PA), and for those who wish to drive a brand new car with zero hassle, who don’t want to have to interact with a community group in order to drive somewhere, or where the convenience factor is worth a lot and where cost effectiveness is not the primary object.

However, we believe that this offering does not quite hit the target for Histon & Impington, where people are likely to drive slightly further than city residents, are probably more cost focused, and are probably not so concerned about driving the latest car model.

By running a community club, we can reach a much wider audience; those who drive less than 6,000 miles a year, and we can attract those who wish to save money, to reduce their carbon emissions, and who enjoy the aspect of volunteering and sharing that will come from this co-operative effort. We can also start NOW, rather than waiting for almost 2 years and hoping that we will still fall within Streetcar’s strategy at that time.