Is sharing better than buying? Rebecca Feiner looks at the rise of the car club

Are you in the club? It's a question that may soon lose its nudge-nudge, wink-wink, Carry On connotations and become a measure by which people establish their green motoring credentials.

	Giles and Miranda Semper with their children and a car provided by the pioneering car club Streetcar

The recent proliferation of car clubs in Britain is promoted not just by the businesses that run them but by local authorities, architects, planners and housing developers such as those behind the car-free Carlton Drive in Wandsworth, south London. All are suspiciously eager to display their carbon-reducing schemes like a badge of worthiness, a quality that requires a dose of healthy scepticism wherever it is expressed. So while car clubs look good on recycled paper, one must ask whether they really meet practical needs.

One of the fastest growing clubs in London and the South-East is Streetcar, the brainchild of Andrew Valentine and Brett Akker. Launched in April 2004 with a modest fleet of just eight cars, it now boasts more than 10,000 members, 250 cars and 150 locations in London, Sussex and Kent.

Valentine and Akker were apparently inspired by an article they read in an American magazine, but rather than simply discuss it they went out and acted on it. From the outside, Streetcar's winning formula seems to be a combination of simplicity of use, convenience and competitive pricing, not to mention convincing motorists that joining a car club is greener and more socially responsible than buying a car. Using the pay-as-you-go principle familiar to mobile phone users, members have access to a car 24 hours a day, seven days a week, with none of the worry and expense of insurance, resident parking permits, garage fees, maintenance and all the other bureaucratic burdens that car owners must carry. Streetcar claims it has in effect removed 6,500 private cars from the roads since it was launched, and its members say they drive a dramatic 68 per cent less since joining the club. What's more, with the AA estimating the average annual cost of car ownership at £2,749, using a Streetcar twice a week would save £2,042.

There is no annual or monthly fee and no cost penalty for opting out of your membership; once issued with your Streetcar swipe card and code number, you can book your car online or by telephone. It costs £4.95 per hour with a weekday rate cap of £35, a charge that includes insurance and enough petrol to cover 30 miles. That's plenty for a quick dash around town, after which additional mileage is charged at 19p per mile; a fuel card is left in every car.

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It sounds attractive but how user-friendly is it? I went to meet Miranda and Giles Semper and their two small children, both of an age requiring child seats, whose combined needs on a shopping trip surely provide the ultimate test for any car club scheme.

Originally from Winchester, Giles is a tough customer. His experience as one of the anti-road protesters at Twyford Down galvanised his commitment to the environment and he made a personal pledge 12 years ago that he would never own a car. But is a car club really the best option for a young family? "It's no longer just an ethical choice, but a practical one," he says. "Living in a city, having a car outside your house is a burden both on your mind and financially. You're immediately relieved of that burden when you join a club." That's not to say he wouldn't like to see improvements to the Streetcar scheme: more cars in more locations, the use of alternative fuels, parking at major railway stations around the country to make business trips viable, persuading fleet buyers down the car club route and encouraging councils to replace pay-and-display parking with car club areas. Nevertheless this former roads protester is a convert to car-sharing. "It makes you drive less because you see it as a direct cost each time you use the car," he says. "You can be principled and sensible at the same time." There's a genuine pragmatism here. Unlike some folk who insist that we should all ride bicycles and donkeys, car clubs acknowledge that even in cities blessed with with comprehensive public transport facilities, you sometimes need to use a car. The question is, do you always need to own one?