The Waterbury Democrat., 1940-10-14

~ To AXV CAG66OA GtAOIk eV ChAl ~ v revolution. Full measure of It's eco homie and social impact will not be made until long after the word mo- bility has disappeared from our newspapers and magazines. Only 28 years ago there were fewer than one million cars and trucks in the coun- try. Today there are more than 30 times as many. In 1915 reads were generally unadapted to winter travel, limited to narrow local uses.. Today 31 00.000 motor vehicles op- crate the year round on more than 3,000.000 miles of highways.
 And while the highways admitted ly are still inadequate to the de- mandS of traffic, they comprise nevertheless a network of Connr1uni- cation which could not have existed even in the widest dreams one generation ago when the word transportation meant . steamboat or 8 railroad train.
 Today both the boats and the rail- roads continue to perform useful services, but alongside of them has sprung up a system of personal transportation unparalleled in world history. Last year ten times more passenger mileage was carried on highways than in all other forms of travel combined.
 In 1915 automobiles were still called pleasure" cars and their use was severely restricted. But the in- dustry was on its way and the au- tomobile was rapidly becoming a major factor in the strengthening of democracy in the land. Barriers of distance were destroyed. Social and economic horizons were en- larged for families in cities and families on farms.
 Today the term pleasure car" is obsolete and public surveys show that the annual road travel of 287 billion vehicle miles-a figure to think about-is prsponderantly for necessity purposes. There is grow ing 8 realization that this flexible and efficient transport system, pro- foundly identified with new social and economic conditions, has a meaning for national defense which goes far beyond the concept of mo- bility.
 The evidence developed from road use surveys shows that after sub- traction of commercial vehicle movement. more than one-half of the normal driving done in personal automobiles Is for purposes which can be classified as business objec- tives.
 As this necessity usage developed, the country's economy rearranged itself around the principle and practice of highway travel. New industrial plant locations today are affected more by availability of parking space for workmen,s cars than by propinduity to densely pop- illated areas.
 The trend in location of retail trade establishments throughout the country has been along the same lines, while the selection of new housing areas in growing conmuni- ties almost without exception has been dictated by highway accessi- bility.
 Recent studies of trafic movement ilv several large cities indicate that mass transportation facilities could no longer handle the trafic carried by personal cars without revolution ary expansion. In Boston, for ex- ample. where the number of cars registered is not comparatively great, it was found that while ap- proximately 000,00O people enter the central zone by mass transportation means, an additional 800, 900 persons employ their own cars for the same daily movement.
 In Michigan an analysis of road use dtscloses that in case after case the biggest single item of mileage is accounted for by driving to work" each day. In Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia a survey of iDT,. 900 steel plant workers showed that 1b per cent of them owned and drove automobiles.
 In smaller communities every. where the adoption of this new form Of transportation to essential services Is even more pronounced than in metropolitan ceaters which have mass transportation facilities. Further development og such studies is inevitable as new appFaisals Of motor trnnAport get under way, but enough data already ere available to indicate how large cities. small ciMes and country areas alike would be paFalyssd by restriction of pri- vate car lieo.
 The historic aspect Of this revoIu- ton will he depicted at the National AutoHobile Show Co e collection cf famous automobiles. Most og them gro Of historical Interest, ail ef them draniall9e by contrast with iolf models the automollve ovoullon.
 nut Inc most telling symbolism Of