Communities FAQs

The first step to setting up a community bike share is to understand your objectives. If you are setting up a scheme to encourage people to go on and buy a bike themselves, your scheme will have a different model than if you are wanting to offer hourly/daily hire of bikes to encourage a move away from car use. A good starting point is to engage with your local community to see how they would want to use the bikes; this also helps to get interest in the scheme before it is launched. Understanding your objectives and getting insight from your community on what the demand may be, is useful when it comes to applying for funding.

It is also a good idea to make relationships with your local bike shop as you don’t want them to feel you are in competition with them, and there may be potential for to establish a partnership, where they provide and maintain the bikes. Remember, you also need staff/volunteers to help you to set up and run the scheme. For further information check out our Community Bike Share Toolkit, listen to our podcast series, or drop us an email at scotland@como.org.uk and one of our team will get back to you. 

When setting up a car share scheme, it is good to get engagement from the local community. This will help determine the potential demand and enable you to shape the scheme to best suit the local community. You should have a clear understanding of what your objectives are e.g., is your aim to encourage people to give up their own car to use a shared electric car for environmental reasons, or are you keen to offer people the use of a car who otherwise are unable to access local services and amenities, and therefore help with social inclusion (or it could be both). Having clear objectives and understanding the community needs will help when you are applying for funding.

There are different models of car clubs, from informal sharing of a car with friends/family, to peer-to-peer models, or an independently run car club, or even a national car club operator. There are a number of considerations when choosing which model would work best for you such as how you will fund the scheme, whether the scheme is run by volunteers or paid staff, and sourcing appropriate insurance for the vehicles, so why not drop us an email scotland@como.org.uk and we would be happy to have a chat with you. If you live outside of Scotland, please get in touch with us at info@como.org.uk.

In Scotland, there are many funds available to help you set up a community bike share scheme. Government funding is available through organisations such Energy Saving Trust’s e-bike grant, and Cycling Scotland’s Community Fund for bikes and storage facilities. CoMoUK also have micro-grants (up to £2,500) available to Scottish communities to help facilitate the sharing of bikes, such as booking systems and trackers.

There is also potential funding from sources such as the national lottery, local wind farms, and private sector businesses like Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE) and Asda.

Check out our list of potential funding options to see what funding is available to you.

One of the main costs of setting up a community car share scheme is the purchase of the vehicle(s). Fortunately, there is often funding available to support this, including Scottish Government grants through Energy Saving Trust, and potential private sector funding from companies such as Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE). Another option is local wind farms who support their local area through community benefit funds.

CoMoUK have micro-grants (up to £2,500) available to Scottish communities to help facilitate the sharing of vehicles, such as booking systems and telematics.

If you need funding to help you run the project, one source is the Scottish Government’s Smarter Places, Smarter Choices Open Fund which can cover expenditure such as staff costs.

Check out our funding database to see what funding is available to you.

Our team of experts can offer you tailored advice for setting up your community shared transport scheme. We can provide guidance to help you establish a successful scheme that will work for your area, provide funding via our micro-grants, and you can also join our regular forums to share and learn from others with similar projects. Please get in touch with the team by emailing scotland@como.org.uk and we’d be happy to have a chat with you. If you live outside of Scotland, please get in touch with us at info@como.org.uk.