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? v.9

It is impossible to deny that the number of cars has increased dramatically over the last few decades. The impact is especially noticeable in big cities, where there is now a heavy traffic each and every day. Nevertheless, governments can take some actions to improve the situation by developing alternatives to car usage. Nowadays, personal vehicles have become ubiquitous for both commuting and family purposes. People find themselves trapped on the way home or to the office and waste a lot of time on the commute. Any metropolis can serve as an example: Bangkok, Moscow or London. Each city has its own specific traffic problems as city infrastructure varies, but the overall picture is quite the same. The most obvious way to tackle this issue is to encourage people to use their cars less, which can be done in a several ways. Firstly, governments should increase the number of public transport services and improve their comfort level. This would require investment in new services and the refurbishment of older buses. The extra money could come from increased car tax. The more convenient the public transport is, the more people will tend to use it instead of their own car. Secondly, car-sharing services can be found or developed in cities. In this way, one car can be used by city dwellers during a day, which would automatically reduce the number of cars being used. Undoubtedly, these two solutions alone will be able to improve the situation dramatically. In conclusion, traffic jams are a well-known problem in the majority of the cities in the world. However, the governments can help to solve this problem by both encouraging car-sharing development and public transport improvement.