The only way to reduce the amount of traffic in cities today is by reducing the need for people to travel from home to work, shopping and education.To what extent do you agree or disagree?
The most viable solution to the ever-growing traffic problem in urban areas, according to some, is to minimize the citizen’s need for travel to workplaces, shopping malls and schools. However, I disagree with this viewpoint.
Firstly, all jobs cannot be done from home. Doctors, engineers, nurses and many other professionals have to visit their workplaces to perform their jobs. Similarly, if we shop online, dispatch staff will still be on the road to deliver products. In addition to this, many professional courses require field studies and laboratory works and an online course cannot provide such facilities. Online courses cannot be compared with classroom teaching and the quality of the products cannot be judged just by the pictures on a laptop or a phone. Furthermore, if somebody is confined to one place for a long, he may develop health problems – diabetes, obesity, hypertension, and weak eyesight are only a few to mention.
To truly tackle the traffic congestion, we need more realistic solutions. One such solution can be improving the public transportation. The convenience of public conveyance would discourage many to use their private cars, which is the primary reason for bad traffic in many cities. Furthermore, the government can encourage cyclists to use this eco-friendly mode of transport more often by dedicating a separate lane for them. Many European and Asian cities, for example, already have separate cycle lanes and this has been truly effective in promoting environmentally friendly vehicles and reducing congestions.
In conclusion, in order to minimize traffic jams, the authority should enhance mass transportation facilities and encourage people to use eco-friendly transports rather than planning to restrict people’s movements.
Alternative Answer:
[Disagree]
Urbanization has brought the term traffic congestion into existence. A school of thought believes that traffic can only be controlled by limiting the daily commuters’ need for travel. However, I am not convinced that this is the only or the best way.
Apparently, reasons that substantiate the claim ‘the less frequently people travel in a city, the fewer traffic jams they create’ – require thorough analysis. Firstly, the main reasons city dwellers commute on a daily basis are for study, business, job, shopping and social gathering. Some of them could be done from home due to the advancement of technology through e-learning, online shopping and work from home concept. This will reduce the traffic to a certain extent. To illustrate, a survey conducted by Australian Traffic Authority found out that 75% commuters in private cars travel for shopping, job and education and it is clear that if people can work from home, do online shopping and enroll in e-learning, traffic congestion would be reduced, if not solved.
On the contrary, work at home is not possible for a great number of workers such as nurses, doctors, police and hence it is necessary for them to travel to their workplaces daily. Moreover, online learning cannot be an alternative to the classroom-based education and online shopping is yet to replace the traditional shopping approach. Furthermore, it is evident that controlling the necessity for travel for the day to day activities is not the only way to manage traffic. Improving the public transportation, carpooling and encouraging pedestrians and bike riders could be some great solutions.
To conclude, limiting the need for travelling for city dwellers would help control the traffic problem to some extent but other measures should be in place. The government should encourage people to use more environmentally friendly mode of transportation to tackle both traffic and pollution.