FUTURE TRANSPORT.

Manawatu Herald, Volume L, Issue 3890, 3 January 1929, Page 4

FUTURE TRANSPORT.

“The present state of motoring is the result of years of constant endeavour on the part of pioneers and manufacturers, and yet in general principle the (Vehicles we have today are the same as we started with, say, 40 years ago. They are faster, less noisy, and less costly to run, and in every way more pleasant to use, hut they still remain much as they were at the end of the last century,” says Sir Henry Austin, the motor manufacturer, in the Manchester Evening News. “The petrol-driven vehicle stands supreme to-day. Can it survive, and if so, will it 'keep its present form for GO more years? It is reasonable to suppose that the cities and towns will get bigger and bigger, and that people will continue to congregate in confirmed areas, making traffic congestion so serious as to render some changes necessary. It will be no pleasure to motor in these cities and towns, and even in many of the highways, as we do at present, 60 years hence. There jwill be more communal travelling on fast and silent running vehicles, many of which will be of

the trackless tram type, using electric \current from overhead wires and avoiding the unhealthy exhaust fumes that at present vitiate our atmosphere. Those vehicles which need freedom of movementand do not use electric energy will be possible only on the country roads, and will have means for neutralising the exhaust gases where internal combustion motors are the propelling medium. The immediate future will not bring forward the vehicle we shall probably use in CO years hence. Our present automobiles are reasonably satisfactory, and while improvements and changes are a matter of everyday occurrence, we are tnot likely to see for sonic time such alterations in design as will make them out of date, in either appearance tor performance.”