Some people think that the best way to solve environmental problems is to increase the price of fuel for cars and other vehicles. Do you agree or disagree?

Traffic congestion and pollution have become major problems worldwide. Pollution is particularly worse in the big cities. While it is possible that higher petrol prices will solve the traffic and pollution problems to a great extent, raising the price of oil is not the best solution. However, I believe that other measures are more effective. The main reason why raising the fuel prices is not the right solution is that it is the short-term measure. Although it might cut the number of vehicles on the road, it largely affects the prices of food and other goods. For instance, in India, my home country, everything relies on the transport. If petrol prices increase, the prices of commodities in the market will also increase. This will lead to inflation in the market which has a big domino impact on what people end up paying even for a slice of bread. A better solution is to find measures that will work in the long run. To illustrate, escalating the investment in alternative fuels and improving public transport are more effective measures than increasing petrol prices. Traffic and pollution problems will not be solved until people start using the public transport. For this reason, the government should make public transport available at cheap rates and prohibit cars from city centres. To conclude, this essay discussed how the growing population and worsening air quality have made it imperative for governments and people to adopt change and cut the use of private transport. However, in my opinion, increasing the cost of petrol is not the right solution for traffic congestion. Instead of taking this drastic measure, governments should invest in public transport and clean fuel.