Conclusion.
—The world cannot now get along without the motor car. What was a luxury yesterday has become a necessity to-day. Automotive transportation is carving out a path for itself. While it perhaps will take much from the older forms of transportation it can never hope to supplant them. The final result will come only after the world has had opportunity through competitive experience to determine which is most economical in time and money and which is most desirable and comfortable from a personal or a sociological standpoint for the various purposes and various kinds of transportation.
At present it would seem as though the automobile will be used more largely than ever: I. As a pleasure and business vehicle driven by its owner for passenger traffic: (a) for local travel near home; (b) for short runs from town to town; (c) for more extended tourist traffic, and (d) for the use of salesmen. II. For pay passenger traffic: (a) Taxi-cabs in the cities: (b) Motor-bus service in the cities either in competition or in conjunction with street car service; (c) motor bus service to suburban and outlying districts; (d) motor bus service between towns up to 75 or 100 miles, with towns not more than two hours apart, (e) motor bus service between railway terminals. III. For freight and express traffic: (a) Haulage of farm products to market or shipping point in owner’s truck; (b) Haulage to market of perishable farm products in rapid going privately or coöperatively owned trucks; (c) Heavy trucking lines through farm districts; (d) Light express lines through farm districts; (e) Suburban or radial distribution of goods from large cities; (f) Short-haul traffic between towns; (g) Short branch-line or stub-end transportation to be taken over by trucks either in competition or conjunction with railways; (h) Trap car and store to door service by railways; (i) Terminal distribution allowing cars to be loaded and unloaded at a greater distance from congested centers; (j) Terminal distribution between different lines of railway or between railway and waterway either to relieve congestion or where there is no physical connection; (k) Longer hauls where there are no rail facilities; (l) Logging and lumbering formerly done by horses, oxen, or even light railway, (m) Rural mail service, and IV. By modified or combination motors: (a) Trackless trolley; (b) Rail motors.