Increasing the price of petrol is the best way to solve traffic and pollution.
What extend do you agree or disagree? What other measures do you
think more effective?
Bad traffic and increasing pollution are thorny issues challenging every major
city in the globe. To combat such problems, government encourages
companies to mark up gas price in an effort to decrease car use and cut down
waste gas. However it may temporarily alleviate the problem, but is doubtfully
the optimal solution.
First of all, consumers and economy would be victimized by such measures.
The number of cars in a country directly depends on the proportion of the
population affluent enough to own cars. As a result, raises in gas price could
invoke hard feelings among this segment of people but would not drastically
change their behavior in using cars. Even if the number of cars on road is
reduced due to higher gas cost, this is not the best way to solve traffic
problems. Such policy would hurt the auto industry, place higher costs on
current and prospect car owners, and undermine the economy of a nation. In
the long run, the final way out could be the construction of better roads and
more effective use of available transport facilities.
Secondly, there is evidence that waste gas from cars is not the leading cause
of air pollution. The culprit may be the discharge of polluting substances into
the atmosphere due to the rapidly growing manufacturing industry. As a result,
reduction of the number of cars would not return us a blue sky and fresh air.
We could better handle this problem if we could increase control over industrial
waste discharge and adopt more environmental friendly materials and
production equipment.
Finally, other measures like the application of cheaper and cleaner energy
resources could also be a better solution. For example, we now have the ability
to make cell-powered or even solar-powered cars. Such energy is completely
clean and plentiful. However we still have a very long way to go to turn such
technologically possible into affordable and practical products.
To conclude, it is not the best way to control traffic and pollution by increasing
gas price because such action will hurt consumers and economy without
achieving what it is aimed for. Measures such as construction of better
transport facilities and development of new energy resources could be more
effective solutions.
