WHY PEOPLE BUY MOTOR CARS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 210, 5 September 1930, Page 6

WHY PEOPLE BUY MOTOR CARS.

WASTE OF TIME IN TRAVEL.'

There are, I take it, several reasons why people 'buy motor cars. It is pretty clear that ill many cases not really being able to afford one is not a deterrent. But one potent reason must be the maddening and appalling waste of time involved in getting about this sprawling city of ours, especially when you arc forced to take a roundabout route. One evening I went from the city to a house at the bottom of Victoria Avenue. From"tlie time I left Queen Street until I reached home in a street four miles from the post office four hours passed, and two of those were spent in travelling. I could have covered the distances in forty minutes by motor without speeding. Another evening I went to Otahuhu. It took me an hour and a half to go and an hour and a half to return; forty-live minutes all told by car Avould have sufficed. On a recent afternoon I walked from Glen Eden to Titirangi and back. I arrived at Glen Eden at six to find that a train was scheduled to leave for town at eleven minutes past. Excellent! At half-past six the train had not arrived, and, learning that it was still a good way off I walked round the corner to get a bus. After twenty minutes' wait a bus came along, 'but I was crowded out. I went back to the station and joined others who !had been waiting since six or longer. The train arrived about seven, and, to cut a long story short, I readied honie a little after eight. I had spent two 'hours in getting from Glen Eden to my home, and I should say the distance i<3 about jive or six miles by road. Any resident of the western suburbs who complains about transport has my sympathy. These arc only three examples of what is happening to large numbers of people daily. Time is wasted and nerves are worn to shreds with standing about, changing conveyances and fretting. The truth is that the ideal of a widely spread out garden city is not compatible with quick and cheap transport. But is it any wonder that men and their wives, tired to the limit with spending half an evening going across Auckland and back, or reaching home from the theatre at half-past eleven or later, with half the enjoyment of the entertainment taken away by standing in a crowded tram and 'walking, quite a bit from the terminus, resolve to buy cars? They may know in their hearts that they cannot afford cars, but the temptation to.be independent of slow and often circuitous transport is too strong. I myself cannot afford a car, but will I be able to hold out for ever ? —OLD-FASHIONED.