It is not often these days that motorists are charged with offences that have been on the statute book over 150 years, but it happened this week in South Yorkshire.

Philip Coates, from Barnsley, was charged under the 1835 Highways Act of riding a motor vehicle on the pavement and in pleading not guilty to the offence, has opened up the possibility of a new type of vehicle being allowed on the roads of the UK. Mr Coates was riding a “Segway” and has been riding one around the streets of Barnsley since bringing it home from a family holiday in Florida.

A Segway can best be described as a motorised scooter, if you imagine the scooter to be the type you had as a child, but instead of the wheels being situated at the front and back, the wheels on the Segway are on each side of the axle. The wheels are also very big, about the size of the wheels on a moped, and in fact the Segway has been around for almost 10 years. It doesn’t come cheap though, the average price is somewhere around £5000.

The Segway is already accepted on the roads in many states of the United States of America and also quite a few countries in Western Europe, Italy and France amongst them. The many supporters in the UK have actually been hoping for someone to be prosecuted so a challenge to the charge can be made and the legal position can be ascertained, it is expected that this case will instigate such a challenge.

There are definite problems in actually getting a legal definition, as the Department of Transport have pointed out. It cannot be described as a bike because there are no pedals; it has a motor, but no seat and would definitely fall foul of many road safety regulations as it does not have lights or the capability to inform other drivers of its proposed direction through indicators. At the moment then the Segway is confined to private roads which means that owners of them will not be looking for a motor insurance quote and it will remain that way until Mr Coates has his day in court.

Fuel prices are still continuing to increase, and we are now close to a record high price. With no sign of the price reducing it is important to use other methods to reduce the cost of motoring, and there are methods that everyone can use. First start with your car insurance; whether it is normal car insurance or commercial vehicle insurance, you have nothing to lose by seeing if it is possible to save money by switching insurance companies.

One of the best ways to save on petrol consumption is to drive slower. Clearly this does not mean driving at10mph, as this will just annoy everybody else, but also do not speed excessively either. As a general rule as your speed increases, you will use more fuel to travel the same distance - this is due to the exponential increase in air resistance. Switching off your engine if you’re going to be stood in traffic for more than a minute will also help save fuel; it may sound like a drastic measure but if you are in a traffic jam and going nowhere, why waste fuel. Check your tyre pressure regularly, if you have under-inflated tyres you can increase your fuel usage by a massive 3% and it is also dangerous.

Often the simpler measures can give some of most impressive results - give your vehicle a clear out and remove everything you don’t need. If a vehicle is lighter it will use less fuel. Keep all the windows and sunroofs shut, as it will increase the air resistance and your fuel consumption. Your air conditioning will increase your fuel consumption when driving at low speeds; at higher speeds the effects are less noticeable. If it’s a hot day (not applicable very much in the UK) it will be more economical to open the windows around town and save the air conditioning for when you are driving at a faster speed.  Try and make sure you do not leave the aircon on all the time, driving is meant to be a pleasure so you should enjoy the air-con but at the right times. Turning the air-con off a few minutes before reaching your destination will also save you some fuel.

While it’s true that any of these ideas on there own will not really save you a great deal, when added together over a year, they will add up to a decent amount.

Have you ever been out walking your dog and looking at all the different cars and thought to yourself ” I would love to drive a car like that” well thanks to the brainchild of two London entrepreneurs it could well become a reality as what is claimed to be the first neighbour-to-neighbour car rental service in the world has arrived. The main aim of the new scheme is to allow those who don’t own a car, but who need one for occasional trips, to be able to hire vehicles from those that do. Owning a car is, after buying a home, one of the biggest expenses most of us face, and so more and more people are giving up their cars as they struggle to cope with the ever increasing living costs.

There has been a steady increase in car club members since the credit crunch hit Britain and for people who drive relatively infrequently, the savings can be substantial. You’ll also be doing your bit for the environment as the average car owner produces more than two tonnes of carbon dioxide while driving, each year,  so while car clubs are becoming more popular, this  new initiative provides another way to get access to a car when and if you need it.

Founder, and former venture capitalist, Vinay Gupta said “Our vision is that, in time, someone will be able to step out of their front door and have four or five neighbours’ cars within striking distance for hire, The number of relatively unused cars on the road has become a real problem for many neighbourhoods,” “Research has shown that many cars in the UK today are used on average less than an hour per day. Our research also showed that there are many potential renters who would be happy to pay for services if they could be delivered locally. We recognised this as a massive opportunity to bring a peer-to-peer business model to a new market to help address this problem without putting new cars onto the road. For the first time, anywhere in the world, would-be drivers can get rental access to the car next door, literally.”

All of the cars that will be on offer will have a background check to confirm the car is legally registered and the owner’s details are true. Safety checks will also be done. On wishing to become a member, basic security checks will be carried out and anybody with 6 points on their licence will automatically be banned as will anybody who has had a drink driving conviction within the last 5 years
As for pick-up and dropping-off the vehicle, that will be up to the borrower and lender as will filling in a company issued log recording the condition of the car and the amount of fuel in its tank. Only once a fee has been paid, at the company offices in London, will the rental be approved and the car insurance, which will be presumably some sort of any driver car insurance, and completely separate from the car owner’s own policy, will then be activated.
The car owners will be able to set their own prices but they will receive help from the organisers. Both hirers and the hirer will be encouraged to give feedback to the company (similar to EBay) after each rental, so that proceedings can be monitored. Car owners will be paid on a monthly basis, Neither party will have to pay a membership fee; and declaring any money earned to the tax office will be the responsibility of the car-owner and have nothing to do with the company

“We believe our idea will transform the concept of car ownership - and how cars are used and rented in the UK,” said Mr Gupta