▶ Your Answer : In modern society, there has been an increasingly worrying issue about traffic jam in cities. Regarding this, same argue that this problem can be tackled by making public transport completely free to everyone at any time. However, I disagree to some extent with this viewpoint because people prefer using their own cars for its convenience and efficiency regardless of public transport fare. In this essay, I will support my opinion with examples.
First of all, people can get to destinations with their own cars more easily than buses or trains. That is to say, public transport does not take people directly to where they want to go, but usually people have to transfer or walk after getting off. Understandably, the journey can take longer and feel very tiring on buses and trains especially during rush hour because they can be packed full of people. On the contrary, if someone drives his/her car, he/she does no need to get on and off several times but feels more relaxed inside their car alone. Because of this advantage, people choose driving their own cars even though bus/train fare might be cheaper or even free. Consequently, this method would not reduce the number of cars on the road.
Furthermore, if public transport becomes free to everyone, presumably there would be more passengers. This means the government would have to increase the number of bus that will make roads more clogged up. For example, Seoul city council has made fast bus lanes in its city to ease traffic congestion, which worsened it in fact. By not letting private cars use the lane, the rest lanes are even busier and buses using only one lane did not make public transport any faster. Thus, it can be seen that free buses and trains are no the adequate solution for busy roads.
To sum up, whereas making public transport free could be one of measures to address the traffic problem, I believe that people might still prefer driving their own cars due to its convenience and efficiency. Also, it would result in worse traffic jam unless the government improve the road system first. Personally, I think that the government should impose a congestion charge on private cars as well as adopting free public transport gradually. |