One problem faced by almost every large city is traffic congesstion. What do you think the causes are? What solutions can you suggest?

One of the most serious issues facing the majority of large urban areas is

traffic

jams. The main reason for

this

is that there are too many private cars on the roads these days and a viable solution is to introduce more

park-and-ride

schemes. The number of people owning cars increases year on year, with most families now having more than one

car

. Most people like the convenience of travelling at the time they want to rather than being restricted to public transport timetables, so they prefer to drive themselves around rather than taking the bus or train.

This

is despite the fact that they frequently have to sit in long

traffic

queues as they near the

city

centre. Whenever I have to attend

in

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a meeting, I always take my

car

because it means that I can leave home when I want to rather than getting stressed about getting to the station in time to catch the train. A solution

that is

proving successful in many areas is

park-and-ride

schemes.

This

is where a person parks her

car

for free in a large

car

park on the outskirts of the

city

and take a bus for the final part of her journey. The fee that person has to pay for the bus trip is usually very small and

this

public transport system is generally very regular, running every ten minutes or so. A survey carried out in the

city

of Brisbane showed that the rush hour congestion decreased by 10% when the council set up a

park-and-ride

scheme to the north of the

city

. There was an additional drop of another 10% in

traffic

volume when a

second

scheme began operating to the south. In conclusion, the major urban problem of

traffic

congestion caused by the excessive number of private cars on the streets can be resolved by the familiarization of

park-and-ride

systems

on

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busy towns.