THE USES OF CARS

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 15, 18 January 1924, Page 10

THE USES OF CARS

BUSINESS AND PLEASURE

AN: AMERICAN CENSUS.

Nearly half of the total number of •automobiles in the United States, announces the American National Automobile Chamber of Commerce, are used daily for business, and another 36 per cent, are used . for occasional business errands. , Less than 3 per cent, of the cars, or about one car in every 35, are used solely foj recreation.' Nearly half of all the motorists in California are 'motor campers. In Alabama people use their cars more frequently than in any other State for driving to church, and everywhere the automobile is being used to do such jobs as to saw wood, -drive stock to pasture, pull up stumps, and act in the place of a horse to draw hay from the wagon into the hay-mow during'haying season. These are some of the facts brought out -:by the responses of some 10,000 motorists, chosen from ten States in different parts of the couutry,to a questionnaire as to what use they made of .their cays.. The replies are said to show a ''cross-section of the completeness with which transportation has been adapted to every phase of human activity." Among the 1063 carowners who replied to the questionnaire, announces a bulletin issued by the National Automobile Chamber of Commerce, only thirty state that their cars are used exclusively for recreation', while the remainder have employed their vehicles for a great range of purposes, including sawing wood and social welfare. '-..■■: ..--,. ..... Fifty-two per cent! of those replying stated that they used the car for driving directly to work, and 7 per cent, more^ use it for that purpose in conjunction with ' the railroad. In suburban areas the railroad figure would undoubtedly be much larger and the di-rect-to-work 'percentage-' smaller. ■' Evidently the' adaptation of the motor-car to'commercial purposes is increasing. Forty-six per cent of those replying stated that they used their cars daily in business, while 36 per cent: more said that the car. was used occasionally tor this purpose. This total of 82 per cent, does not include, the business' use of the car in shopping or in driving to and from work. > There was quite a wide .variation in the replies from different sections on certain points. The Eastern Seaboard, for instance, does comparatively little motor campiiig, only 13 per cent, of the cars being thus employed in Massachusetts, 18 per cent, in New Yoi'k, 9 per, cent, in Pennsylvania, whereas in California the figure is 46 per cent., and in lowa and Texas 34 per cent. The south heads the/list of those using cars for going to church with a total of SI per cent, in Texas and 74 per cent, in Alabama, while California here is at the bottom with 29 per cent., and Massachusetts, New York,' and Pennsylvania are also under the 50 per cent, figure. •'-'■ ' ' - i Long-distance touring, while by no means the chief purpose of the car, is indulged, in -by 51 per cent, of these witnesses. More'than'so per cent, of the responses, too, stated that the cars are used for picnic purposes, while the average of cars used for motor camping was 20 per cent. Fifteen volunteered the information that they employed their, automobiles for hunting and fishing, and a number state that it enables them to have a home in the suburbs. I Sometimes the ownor feels that he does not get much out of his transportation, as in the case of the father who wrote in that,, his son used the car all the time to take young ladies driving m the evening. On the other hand, there are some who apparently do not care for evening driving, as only 68 per cent, of the total indicated that they operated their cars after sunset. The 52 farmers reported using the automobile to supply; \power for sawinowood, to haul supplies from the city to carry--dressed meat to, market, to transport. water melons, peas, peanuts, and sugar cane, to take grain to'the mill, to bring cows from pasture, to transport labourers .from the city, to haul cream to the station: to take water and ice to the workers in the field, to pull up stumps, to carry the family- to church and take women to their! social clubs. ■ One man writes: '-'Storage battery of car lights garage and furnishes power for electric drill. Also use car to run grindstone- and small mill to grind feed Also unload hay with it during haying