MODERN LIVING: Those Rush-Hour Blues

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"We're in trouble today," says San Francisco's Hoover, "because for the last 20 years we have been putting our transportation eggs into one basket — the development of facilities for the private automobile to the virtual exclusion of every other form of transportation." The answer to the problem, most experts agree, is neither to outlaw the auto mobile in cities, nor abandon the commuter to his fate, nor adopt such oft-suggested schemes as the monorail or the far-fetched "pneumatic tube for people." What the nation's big cities need, if they are not to become monstrous masses of immovable autos, is better, more efficient public transportation. Traffic experts want to see the train, the bus and the rapid-transit system take their rightful place alongside the auto as part of a coordinated transportation system. In order to compete effectively, the railroads need tax equality and freedom from excessive regulation. The ICC has already come out in favor of tax relief, and Congress recently made it easier for the rails to discontinue service that is no longer needed. Once these preliminaries are over, it is up to the railroads—and to the auto's other rivals —to win the commuter's hand by fervent wooing. The best suitor will win, but there are plenty of commuters to go around. Like all who feel underprivileged, put upon, unwanted and besieged, the U.S. commuter has a secret desire: he wants to be loved—and to get there on time.