Shropshire car club scheme to tackle traffic misery
Friday 30th December 2011, 10:57AM GMT.
Shropshire could get its first ever ‘car club’ in an innovative bid to end the misery of rush-hour gridlock by borrowing a pool car to make short journeys.
A number of groups are in talks about setting up a scheme in Shrewsbury.
It would be only the fourth of its kind in the Midlands.
Under the plans, drivers who only undertake relatively short journeys would be provided with use of a pool of cars.
Those behind the scheme claim it could save motorists £3,500 per year.
Council chiefs say the scheme, likely to be based around the town centre, could reduce parking and traffic congestion by removing the need for many families to have a second car.
It is currently run at three other Midlands locations, Birmingham, Stafford and Corby.
The project has been put forward by Shropshire Council as part of its sustainable transport package, and would be fully funded from the Local Sustainable Transport Fund.
Club members would be able to access the cars on a self-serve basis. Smart technology in the cars would allow keyless access and measure the distance of the journey for billing purposes.
Councillor Keith Barrow, leader of Shropshire Council, said: “It just seems like a really sensible idea, so we are in discussions and hope to know more by the end of January.”
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Blue badges are a lifeline to people with mobility problems. Note too that some disbilities are invisible. If you think S’bury is congested compare and contrast other towns (and cities).
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Come and take mine and my mothers disabilities inc the pain and you can have both our blue badges!! may I also point out Shrewsbury has quite a large aging population who require helpful parking too, so while your at it take a few years of these people while your at it.
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Now call me stupid mr Blackadder but how is the fact, that someone is driving a pool car instead of their own car, going to reduce gridlock???a
A car’s a car isn’t it or are the pool cars somehow smaller and less likely to cause gridlock?
I await answers from the people in the know.
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I was thinking the exact same, plus, how do the users travel to collect the pool car! If they get a lift from friend or family then surely there will still be two cars in ‘the gridlock’ & if they get a bus, then why not stay on it ?
Best of all this is “likely to be based around the town centre”, BRILLIANT logic.
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Quite agree Buskerman. Why not introduce a car SHARE scheme instead of a pool car scheme, or is that on the cards? Like I have said before, driving used to be a pleasure, now it is a chore.
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well if you read the Shrewsbury Chronicle you’ll see that Councillor Peter Nutting has written a letter stating ‘there are very few traffic problems i Shrewsbury’. Quite what planet Mr Nutting is open to debate, but he’s certainly not talking about this Shrewsbury. Maybe if he’d like to get out of his shop a bit more and go and observe the traffic and various points round the town, namely Castle Foregate, Cross Street, Chester Street, Smithfield Road, Welsh Bridge, Copthorne Bank, High Street he’ll see a very different picture. Or maybe he’d like to go to the bus station and talk to the beleagured passengers and drivers whos journeys and jobs are affected by the Councils joke traffic management. The new junction at Raven Meadows was meant to have helped, has it?? Err NO, The main causees are too many traffic lights so close together which impedes traffic flow, the barrage on Smithfield Road which next to noone uses causing traffic coming off Barker Street to try and squash into a static line of queing traffic on Smithfield Road which the makes traffic tailback on Barker Street, selfish motorists who deliberately and blatantly jump red lights and then block the junctions so nobody can go anywhere, even when there are yellow zig zag boxes. Yes Councillor Nutting really knows whats going on in Shrewsbury …… what a joke
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Well said. obviously he has never had to get across shrewsbury. If they could install intelligent traffic lights which alter their priority to monitor traffic flow then i believe that this would help. I am oftern stuck on smithfield road watching the lights letting 3 cars through over the welsh bridge when there are no cars waiting on barkers steet. And now with the lights at ravens meddows… who ever signed the deal on these cheap traffic light systems needs to be sacked as a monkey could do a better job. As for Mr Nutting – dont make comments you cannot backup as Shrewsbury is suffering.
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the problem with Snithfield Road heading out over the Welsh Bridge is the second set of lights just over the bridge letting cars out of Frankwell not being in sync with the 1st set before the bridge, the lights are meant to be ‘intelligent’ and i use that term loosely! trouble is when the lights are on green to go over the Welsh Bridge, there are idiots coming from Barker Street onto Smithfield Road who can quite clearly see there is static traffic waiting to get into the left hand lane on Smithfield Road but still insist on driving through the lights and then blocking the junction.
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I’m not sure a car pool would ease congestion but it is an attractive idea to those of us who find owning (and therefore parking)cars an expensive nuisance.
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surely its time the Police and parking wardens started to monitor the box junctions and slap a few tickets on people who abuse the markings, they are there to improve traffic flow.
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Yes jeffb, that would be very cost effective on an already stretched Police budget.
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