Kerbside Car Share

User & Setup Guide — Neighbourhood Car Share

Part A — Setup (for the organiser)

1. Install

  1. Install Node.js 22.13 or newer (LTS from https://nodejs.org). Check with node --version.
  2. In a terminal: 
    cd D:\project1\project3
npm install

2. (Optional) Load demo data

npm run seed -- --reset

Creates 4 demo neighbours (alice, bob, chen, dana, all with password password123) and 6 cars. Skip this for real use. If you tried the demo data, stop the server and delete the data folder before going live.

Set these before starting (PowerShell example):

$env:INVITE_CODE = "ELM-ROAD-2026"   # neighbours need this to sign up
$env:CURRENCY    = "£"               # currency symbol shown in the app
$env:DEFAULT_LAT = "51.5074"         # centre of your neighbourhood
$env:DEFAULT_LNG = "-0.1278"
npm start

To find your coordinates, right-click your street in Google Maps or OpenStreetMap and copy the numbers. See DESIGN.md §7 for all options.

4. Start

npm start

The terminal prints two addresses:

If Windows Firewall asks, allow Node.js on Private networks.

5. Letting neighbours in from anywhere (optional)

Your home Wi-Fi address only works for people connected to it. For access from anywhere, either:

6. Backup & maintenance

Part B — Using the app (for neighbours)

Sign up / log in

Open the link the organiser gave you → Create account → choose a username, a display name people will recognise (e.g. “Sam at No. 12”), and a password (8+ characters). Enter the invite code if asked. The group allows up to 10 members.

Find a car

Book

  1. Click a car. The Next 7 days chart shows green (available) and red (booked) times.
  2. Choose Pick-up and Return times. The total price updates as you go. If the time doesn’t work, you’ll see why.
  3. Add an optional note and click Confirm booking. It’s confirmed instantly.
  4. Arrange keys and payment directly with the owner. The app doesn’t take payments.

How prices work: whole days at the daily rate, plus extra hours at the hourly rate (never more than one extra day). Partial hours count as a full hour.

Manage your trips

Bookings → My trips lists upcoming, in-progress, completed and cancelled trips. Click Cancel on anything that hasn’t finished.

List your car

  1. My cars → + Add a car. Fill in make, model, seats and prices. Click Upload a photo to add a picture of your car (JPEG, PNG or WebP, up to 5 MB), or paste a link to one. A photo of the actual car helps neighbours find it on the street. You can change or remove it later under Edit details.
  2. Click the map where the car is parked (or Use my location) and add a pick-up note such as “Outside No. 12”.
  3. Save, then add available times. Renters can only book inside these times.
    • Use the From/Until fields, or + Every day 8:00–20:00 for a week.
    • Overlapping times are joined automatically.
    • Remove a time slot you no longer want to offer. You can’t remove one that has an upcoming booking; cancel the booking first.

Change price or availability

In My cars, edit the hourly/daily price and click Save price. Bookings already made keep their original price. Untick Listed to hide your car temporarily. Edit details changes anything else, including location, and has Delete car (only when there are no upcoming bookings).

See who booked your car

Bookings → Bookings of my cars shows each renter’s name, times, note and price. You can cancel a booking if needed. Please tell the renter first.

Part C — Hosted claude.ai version

A version of the same app is published as a private page on claude.ai. Share its link with your neighbours.