Automobile alternatives.

In essence, an automobile is a personalized transport vehicle which can provide a one seat, door-to-door ride with time of departure and route at the discretion of the driver. One of the basic questions facing trans­port planners is whether there exists a viable " public transport" alternative to such privately controlled vehicles. Experience to date indicates that pub­lic transport schemes, which have limitations on vehicle-availability, departure time, or route choice, cannot " attract" a large percentage of people away from private vehicles. It may be objected that numerous technological changes are being made in transportation vehicles, involving such concepts as tracked hovercraft, fixed guideways for individual vehicles (that is, automatic highways), and such, and that these new technologies may make public transport sufficiently attractive to lure people away from their automobiles. However, there are several errors in these ideas. First, on closer examination, most of the new technologies are suitable only for intercity travel and not for travel within the urban area. Second, the existence of a large capital investment in well developed trans­port systems based on conventional technology virtually demands that any new technology be capable of integrating with existing systems. This puts drastic constraints on the possi­bility of widespread adoption of new technologies.

Finally, except for those " new technologies" which are merely modi­fications of the basic automobile con­cept, none of the new technologies can match the convenience, flexibility, door-to-door service, and freedom of choice with respect to route and de­parture time afforded by the automobile. It is these latter factors which attract the public so strongly to automobiles and it is difficult to conceive of a concept fundamentally different from the " mechanical horse" (auto­mobile) which could provide all these advantages.

The high consumer value on freedom, mobility, convenience, and flexi­bility as provided by private auto­ mobiles is borne out by the steadily rising rate of vehicle ownership per person and declining patronage of public transport in most developed countries. It is now becoming clear that legislation restricting the use of automobiles will be required if it ever becomes necessary to switch a significant percentage of people from private vehicles to public transport. Such legislation would be difficult to pass because of the public fondness for private vehicles. Furthermore, the economies of most developed nations are strongly dependent on the manufacture, sale, fueling, and servicing of automobiles, and legislation seri­ously restricting their use might be economically disastrous. So, it looks like the automobile is securely locked into the fabric of our society for the foreseeable future.