THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE MOTORBUS IN AMERICA.
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WE recently had something to say of the apparent indifference of the average American towards the motorbus, and it is more than consoling to hear views expressed in favour of its development, as a solution to difficult passenger transportation problems in the United States. Mr. David Beecroft, president of the Society of Automotive Engineers, recently expressed the opinion that the development of the motorbus for city or rural transportation is one of the major developments of the motorcar industry to-day. In our large cities, he said, where street area has not been greatly increased in the past 10 years, yet where 8 or 10 cities have been literally stacked one on top of the other by our skyscraper construction, it is necessary that our streets he used as economically as possible both for passenger and
freight movement. It is a prodigal waste of our city streets to have to appropriate safety areas in the middle of our congested thoroughfares in order to provide safety for pedestrians boarding and alighting from street cars. The motorbus, by virtue of its character, stops to take on and drop off passengers at the kerb, thereby leaving the centre of the street free for the unrestricted flow of high-speed traffic. Another aspect of the motorbua is that the route of the bus can be altered as temporary conditions require.
In certain European cities, ..,such as London, trolley and other fixed systems of transportation am not used in some of the more congested centres. The flexibility of the motorbus is one of the at least partial solutions to the/question of street coneestiort to-day.
A new Jdepartmenteof the motor industry is springing up in the manufacture of motorbuses for city and rnral 'use.
California has been a leader in rural bus operation in the States. The city of Los Angeles has a union depot for the scores of passenger buses that run on railroad schedules to cities such as San Diego, Bakersfield, Riverside, Santa Barbara, and San Francisco.
Other Pacific Coast cities are erecting passenger stations for bus service, and these stations have all conveniences &itch as rest rooms, restaurants, hospital service, news stands, etc. In other sections of the country, like areas such as New England, the development of the motorbus forms, in 'short, a renaissance in highway transportation. It is one of the developments el the age.