The 1950s was apparently "the golden age of motoring," where every trip was a joy. Now sitting in our cars in heavy traffic while we wait to get to wherever we are going is called commuting and is something we don't like, but have to endure in order to get where we are going.
Slightly off topic but the Golden Age always brings wry smiles from people.
Someone I met recently whose dad was a Salesman living around Redhill area close to Gatwick told me that when he was on the road in early 1970's he would leave on Sunday evening and stay at a B&B / Hotel close to area he looked after i.e. Greenford and surrounding area as on Monday it would take 3-4 hours to get there and generally returned on Thursday's with day in office on Friday. These days a Sales guy would get laughed at doing this as M25 etc makes it commutable.
I think it is similar with "Golden Age" of aviation which great if you had the money, majority never did and people forget the long flights from horrible airports.