Took a vehicle from the car club to which I’ve belonged for some time out for a spin today, the first time I’ve used it, and although I had a few worries before I began about how the technology would work it all seemed fine and absolutely painless.
You use your membership card to unlock the car, put in your pin number, and off you go. Each time you stop and take the key out of the ignition, it asks you if you want to finish the hire – you keep saying no until you want to say yes.
The car is parked a two-minute walk from my house, and seems to be free considerably more often than it is busy – not sure how the economics of that works out, but it is certainly convenient. Why would you want to own a car?
The purpose was a trip to Coldharbour, near Dorking, in the middle of a forest, a long way from the nearest train station, for a cricket game on the most gorgeous ground set into that forest. It was hot (30C-plus) and dry (the grass actually crackled under-foot), so it almost seemed like I was back in Australia.
After rather too long a personal drought I finally got some runs (28), and helped my team to victory with four balls to spare, so it was a good day. (And if my old games mistress Miss Harris would have considered that I scored far too many of the runs behind the wicket – well you can only do what you can do.)
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