In my current playthrough of Skyrim I have been abstaining from fast travel of any kind, including the carriages, and I've found I enjoy the game so much more than I did when I did use fast travel. Now that I walk everywhere I get to actually experience the journey so much more. It is far more immersive to me than any kind of fast travel, by map or carriage. So I got to thinking, the reason some people prefer not to fast travel is because they do want to experience the journey I assume, right? Carriages are just another means of fast travel that is less useful than the map kind because it has far less coverage. People that do fast travel would just use the map. People that don't fast travel would just walk or ride a horse. So what purpose do the carriages serve? If you do use carriages, why do you choose them over walking, riding a horse, or using the map to fast travel?

It's an RP thing. I want to know that Kayla decided to go to on a carriage from Whiterun to Riften and incorporate it in the story. Also, I don't walk that much as Kayla could freeze to death (with Frostfall installed, it's almost impossible to stay in the tundra regions for too long) and there are too many cases where random enemies will come out and ruin the fun. I mean, you can only fight so many wolves and bandits to know that it's better and less hassle just to go onto a carriage.

With Oblivion, there are no carriages or boats so I use the Dwemer Subway mod so I can get to places quite easily. Once again, the enemies are so annoying in the wilderness. I managed to collect 30 pieces of wolf meat just by going from one city to another. And I didn't plan to hunt...

Morrowind - well, I don't mind walking and enjoying the sights. I have a constant effect invisibility ring which stops random attacks in the wilderness. It's also far more stable for me than Oblivion in that regards.

I've done quite a few play through that abstain from the use of fast travel many times, and I rather like them all in all. The entire point of carriages so that there is a actual reason for such transportation to occur, and it still allows the player to go from Riften to Solitude without having to hike all the way through Skyrim, and can become somewhat tedious once you reach a certain point in the game. Again, its more or less that it doesn't break the coined term...er...immersion, and allows player to go a cross portions of the map efficiently if the player is pressed for time. I'm glad they offered a different manner for transportation in Dawnguard via boat, I like having alternative methods at my disposal.

That aside, they should be kept on the general principle that scraping any form of gameplay instead of expanding or improving on it is in my mind a bad idea.

Carriages were meant to really travel in Skyrim; apparently something prevented Beth from completing them.