Car ownership has increased so rapidly over the past thirty years that many cities in the world are now ‘one big traffic jam.’ How true do you think this statement is? What measures can governments take to discourage people from using their cars?

People are getting used to the traffic jam in almost every major city caused by the highly increased number of cars. In the past thirty

years

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,years

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public transportation and car ownership grew continuously

due to

the increasing wealth of society.

This

was a necessary growth because the cities were developing, the distances were growing, and

therefore

life became faster. Following these circumstances, the nation bought more and more wagons to keep their lifestyle steady. As long as the population grows, and the density of the people increases in a city, the amount of car will rise as well. I was born and grew up in a medium size town, called Nyíregyháza, which has no more residents than 125.000 nowadays. The transportation conditions changed in the past 30

years

, but it is still in the comfortable zone. I moved to Budapest ten

years

ago, which has residents up to 1,5 million and I have a clear view of the different circumstances between these two cities. There are transportation jams in the main districts in Budapest from 7 am to 6 pm which is not acceptable, compared to Nyíregyháza. Now it is clearly understandable, that the government want to discourage the community from using their cars every time when they go to work from the suburbs to the inner city. Parking fees have risen, and extra taxes have been given to those cars, which are used in the main districts day time. The rise of fees and taxes was so high, that people now think twice to go to work by car. There are

also

restricted areas for machines now in special parts of Budapest, where the traffic jams caused serious problems in the past few

years

.