The publicly-owned and managed systems for transporting people between the settlements of urban regions in this country are remarkably efficient. They are capable of moving great masses of passengers to and from their place of work during peak periods, they move quickly, and they have a good safety record. Why then are they in trouble, particularly the systems which go underground and travel on fixed rails? Why are these systems losing passengers and money? There are many reasons which can be given to explain the distress of urban transportation systems, but the dominant one is the availability of a competing form of transport which seems to have almost all the advantages of the subway or commuter railroad in providing fast and cheap service, with the addition of other environmental characteristics which are more attractive and humane from the point of view of passengers. We refer, of course, to the private automobile. Those features of the automobile which are particularly compelling are the following:
Convenience-the automobile takes the individual from his home to a point close to his place of work and does so without requiring him to transfer between systems. It therefore solves the so-called "collection" and "delivery" problems.