The best way to solve the traffic congestion in the city is to provide free public transport for 24 hours a day. Do you agree or disagree?

Nowadays, frequent traffic jams have become a bottleneck in many metropolitan cities across different countries. Some individuals contend that public transit at no cost service should be provided in order to eradicate the congestion problem. I partially disagree as, in my opinion, common transport without any charge is certainly a great initiative, but it is not a viable way to ease during rush hour. It is too good to be true that round-the-clock general transport services can reduce the occurrence of roadblocks because in most cases traffic issues are caused by the presence of a large number of private motors on the road. If local transportation aid is provided free of cost and their prevalence is increased, few people will want to drive their personal vehicles. This will pragmatically reduce the number of cars on the roads and curtail the peak hour gridlock. Moreover, this strategy might implicitly benefit employees, laborers, and people living across far distances traveling on a daily basis for work and would save plenty of their invaluable time without any additional cost on their income. For instance, Luxembourg is the world's first country to offer entirely free public transport with an aim to encourage the nation's inhabitants to use it and curb the continued traffic problems the country is experiencing. On the contrary, when there are too many commuters to avail for the free public transport, buses and trains will become overcrowded. This will make the journey uncomfortable and many people will have to stand all the way until reaching their destination. As a result, affluent commuters will choose not to use public transport. Instead, they will drive their own personal automobile to the workplace and the traffic situation will get worse again. Another drawback of providing cost-free service is that it would be a huge burden on the government and as is not a feasible idea in the long term. Because of this, some of the developing will be affected adversely owing to the imposition of high taxes and price rise on various essential goods and commodities will be lashed out on common people. In my view, I feel that instead of providing no-cost on general travel services, the government should try to improve the frequency and reliability of buses and trains. It should also build wider roads and more flyovers. If people can bestride comfortably on a bus or a train and still reach their destination on time, they will definitely consider that option. Hence, instead of shaping public transit as an unpaid service, what the authority needs to do is to improve it. In addition, the central ministry needs to ensure that the cost of traveling by bus or train is always less than the cost of driving one’s own vehicle. To conclude, free public transport might seem to be a great way to tackle and control traffic congestion, but in my opinion, it is not a practical solution to this problem. A better alternative is to enhance the quality of public transportation and subsidize its cost.