The only way to reduce the amount of traffic in cities today is by reducing the need for people to travel from home for work, education or shopping.
To what extent do you agree or disagree?
Traffic is a serious cause of concern all over the world as due to the surge in population, the demand for vehicles is also rising leading to the congestion of roads and highways. Many individuals reckon that the best method to control the traffic in urban areas nowadays is by decreasing the requirement for masses to commute from home to workplaces, education institutes or places for shopping. This essay is in disagreement with the above given view as there are other potent ways of dealing with the problem.
To initiate with, traffic-light management must be optimised because when lights are all coordinated responsively to demand, incidences of ‘blocking back’ (vehicles stuck in junctions) leading to gridlock can be minimised. Moreover, use of CCTV at crossroads or roundabouts allows traffic managers to see breakdowns, collisions and other causes of congestion. In addition, Illegal parking, waiting, loading/unloading obstructs traffic flow, reduces capacity at junctions, holds up buses, increases danger to those walking or cycling and also causes gridlock across a wide area of the road network. Driving at an inappropriate speed, jumping red lights, or driving through restricted areas all contribute to fatalities.
To continue, existing traffic laws must be strictly implemented to deal with all the aforementioned problems because usually people get away by bribing officers with some amount for breaching traffic laws. Imposing heavy penalties upon offending laws can give people lessons to obey traffic rules. For instance, violators in Western or Arab countries get fined heavily on breaking traffic laws due to which such cases are relatively fewer there in comparison to countries like India and Pakistan. Also parking controls must be extended much further out from the centre of the cities in a co-ordinated way because usually area around the parking lots often are affected with traffic congestion. Furthermore, there should be separate lanes according to different categories of vehicles based on their speed limit. Such as separate lanes for bicycles, heavy duty vehicles, cars and two-wheelers can ensure safety as well as reduce congestion. Initiatives like carpooling must also be encouraged.
To sum up, not all the people can work, study or shop from home because everyone does not have internet connection or pricy electronics to access World wide web. Moreover, it will make people couch potatoes and introverts if they stop travelling completely. Hence it is an ineffective way, other effective remedies to deal with the traffic issues must be tried.
