Essay topic:
The best way for governments to solve the problem of traffic congestion is to provide free public transport in 24 hours per day, and seven days a week. To what extent do you agree or disagree?
My work:
Traffic congestion is a growing problem in many countries over the world. Many people suggest that the Government should supply free public transport all the time to solve this problem. Personally, I do not find this statement completely justifiable because of following reasons.
The first, congestion begins when more vehicles try to use a road than the road can move. This can occur when vehicles cannot exit quickly enough to make way for others. In this case, the solution for tackling congestion most commonly applied relies on the creation of more public transportation – to free up valuable road space by enticing drivers out of their cars. If there was comfortable and free public transportation such as trains and busses, people would choose to use it rather than drive. In fact, this measure is impossible to implement because of financial burdens for State in spending a lot of money on building and maintaining transport systems. Therefore, instead of free cost for commuters, the Government should charge prices that are affordable for everyone.
The second, the another effective way tackled the congestion is to charge a toll during the peak minutes or hours or to charge a toll all day and make the toll higher during peak periods. This is called congestion pricing. Hotels, airlines and phone companies all routinely use congestion pricing to prevent their systems from becoming overloaded. Applying congestion pricing for roads is doubly effective because it can keep flowing from declining to below the maximum capacity of the road.
In conclusion, the traffic jams can be solved by applying a congestion charge for all drivers in the immediate downtown core, combined with an increase in fares for public transit users.