Chapter 1: the working context

The increase of private mobility

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One matter of importance is obscured by global figures. It is the distinction between the future growth in numbers of business, commercial and industrial vehicles (including many cars) on the one hand, and of private motor cars on the other. It only requires a glance at a map showing the land uses in a town to reveal what the future holds. The areas used for commerce and industry are limited in extent, they may be intensively developed and seething with activity, but the commercial and industrial traffic they generate is rational and calculable, for it is closely related to the activities going on. The residential areas on the other hand occupy by far the greater part of the town, and it is within these that there lies the huge potential for the future increase of traffic. It is here that personal mobility will increase, and people will seek to use their cars for journey-to-work, for shopping, for visits to friends and theatres, and for a great range of other social activities and daily errands.

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A possibility which has to be borne in mind is that outright ownership of a motor car will soon cease to be a ‘status symbol’, and that, as a consequence, new systems for the use of cars will come into being. There could, for example, be a much extended use of hire-cars, or more wide-spread taxi services. These would have their effect on traffic volumes, and the space required for parking and storage. This is clearly a line of development that needs to be kept under review, but our inclination is to think that the effects are likely to be marginal only; for whether or not a motor car is a status symbol, there is no doubt that to many people it is a fascinating possession, and to have one at one’s immediate beck and call is an asset of the first order.