Car Free, Care Free.

It has recently been our experience to observe, from a comfortable seat in a fast train, the interminable procession of small cars, winding like a mechanical caterpillar slowly along a main road towards the metropolis, and it was borne upon us that the possession of a car in these times of traffic congestion is surely a doubtful advantage, at least, where there are rail or bus facilities. The car owner enjoys, it is true, besides the pride of possession, a greater choice of time, of route, and of destination, but the sphere of his boasted liberty of movement becomes more limited nowadays as his responsibilities increase. Naturally, we are prejudiced in favour of travel by rail, but from any point of view it seems to us that the pleasures and advantages of the small car are more than outweighed by the cares and responsibilities of ownership and the difficulties and discomfort of driving on our roads as they are at present. It may be that the car owner tends to become a slave to his hobby, but if owning a car means taking one's place in a procession, in an atmosphere of exhaust gases, with a deadening concentration on the road ahead and an ever-present sense of strain and responsibility, we can only say again that we prefer the train.—From the “Railway Gazette,” July, 1938.

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