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Case Study 4 – Streetcar

Case Study 4 – Streetcar

Areas of impact: Environmental and social

Social enterprise location: London, Brighton, Southampton, Kent, Guilford, Oxford and Cambridge, UK

Short description of activities:

Car-share club Streetcar launched in 2004. In order to persuade people to switch to this new way of using a car, the customer experience had to be better than that of buying and owning your own vehicle.

Live|work, a London-based design studio which specialises in the creation, development and management of services, set about designing a customer experience that would enable Streetcar to meet their growth plans.

Why it is a sustainable business:

Streetcar generates profits from providing a service that reduces the environmental impact and congestion associated with car use in cities. The aim of the business is to make car-sharing more desirable than car ownership to reduce the consumerism of objects and increase the more-sustainable consumerism of services.

What is its design aspect?

This is an example of service design delivering reduced environmental impact. In the case of Streetcar, Live|Work used a user-centred service design approach to identify and resolve those issues that acted as a barrier to the uptake of the Streetcar service. These included: the lack of understanding of how the scheme works, access and usability.

Live|Work redefined Streetcar as a clearly communicated four-step process and designed the necessary ‘touchpoints’ to facilitate the process including the design of the website and communication materials.

The process is as follows;

  1. Book by phone or online
  2. Unlock the car using your Streetcard
  3. Type a unique PIN into the dashboard
  4. Drive the car

Main actors and interactions (including stakeholders, networks, services and revenue streams):

  • Streetcar works in partnership with local councils and transport hubs to secure the fixed pick-up locations for their cars
  • It has developed a client base of 50,000 members around the UK
  • It has worked with Network Rail to offer cars at fixed spots by Victoria, Euston, Paddington and Waterloo stations

Other organisations delivering similar work:

  • Zipcar, City Car and Whizzgo

Social Impact:

  • Provides a greater connection between people; it fosters a sense of community by encouraging responsibility towards other club users. You are asked not to leave the car with the petrol tank less than a quarter full; if the car gets dirty, you are invited to earn an hour’s free rental by taking it to the car wash and getting it cleaned at Streetcar’s expense; and if you return the car late, keeping a neighbour waiting, you are fined £25 - of which £20 goes to your aggrieved fellow member.
  • Gets rid of the ‘hassle factor’ involved in sorting out a car; MOT, insurance and parking permits
  • Reduces congestion by taking more cars off the road and helps to free up parking spaces

Economic Impact:

  • Streetcar is economically inclusive for the user and profitable for the business
  • It is as much as 75 per cent cheaper than owning a car, while still making a higher return for the business per car than classic rental firms

Environmental Impact:

  • Every Streetcar takes an average of 20 privately owned cars off the roads of the UK because members often sell (or don't replace) a car when they join. This means Streetcar has already taken over 20,000 cars off the streets
  • Streetcar has found that members choose to drive a car 71 per cent less after joining than they did before. This means that in 2008 Streetcar prevented the emission of over 27,000 tonnes of CO2.
  • Streetcar has been twice as successful as the London Congestion Charge at cutting car usage. It has caused a drop of 71 per cent in miles driven among its members as opposed to 33 per cent for the Congestion Charging scheme. Source: Streetcar's own customer data. TfL Congestion Charge Review.
  • Streetcar uses 25 VW Polo BlueMotion superminis, one of the UK’s most fuel efficient cars
  • Research shows that car club users walk and use other kinds of transport more than before

Links:

Streetcar

Livework

Zipcar

Whizzgo

City Car Club