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

Rising

traffic

jam is an inescapable condition in large and growing metropolitan societies across the world, from Los Angeles to Tokyo, from Cairo to Sao Paolo. The main reason for

this

is that there are too many private

vehicles

on the roads these days and a viable solution is to introduce more

park-and-ride

schemes. Today, the number of people owning

vehicles

is increasing year on year, most families have multiple cars.

Firstly

, families reside in low-density areas that the public transit systems cannot efficiently serve.

Secondly

, privately owned

vehicles

are more comfortable, faster, more private, more convenient in trip timing, and more flexible for doing multiple tasks in one trip than almost any form of public transport.

This

stems from the widespread desire of individuals to pursue certain goals that inevitably overload existing roads and transit systems.

For instance

, imagine the commuting struggle of a mother who works, drops children to school, shops for groceries all in one day using public transport. Owning a car is undoubtedly hassle-free and

hence

the increase in vehicle ownership. There are many ways any region can try to cope with the mobility challenge by initiating bottleneck charges or a

park-and-ride

scheme. While congestion charges can discourage people to use their own cars, a

park-and-ride

scheme can encourage the public to use the public system by allowing

vehicles

to park for free and take public transit for daily commute at discounted rates.

For example

, in Finland, the

park-and-ride

scheme allowed the public to use car parks for free and public transportation was subsidized to a very nominal fee which resulted in a reduction of

traffic

overpopulation by 28%. The easing of

traffic

in major cities around the world can be achieved by using the model developed by the Finnish authorities. In conclusion, 

traffic

cramming is a real problem for both public and governments worldwide and authorities could initiate efforts to ease the problem and save billions of dollars.

In addition

, if the influx of population into major cities is not curtailed or if solutions are not initiated by the ruling governments, living with

traffic

will be a reality for future generations.