MODEL ANSWER | BAND 8.0

Increasing the tax on private vehicles will make them unaffordable and thus reduce the number of vehicles and traffic congestion on the roads. Other measures such as improving the quality of public transport and promoting concepts like car-pooling⊕ may also help. This essay discusses viable solutions to ease traffic congestion on the roads.

Imposing a higher tax on car ownership is one of the best ways to reduce traffic congestion. The exorbitant cost of buying and maintaining a private vehicle will encourage many people to start using the public transport instead. For instance, the Singapore government’s decision to impose a 100 percent tax on cars forced many owners to give up their existing cars because of their inability to afford the tax. This has reduced traffic issues to a large extent.

Improving the quality and reliability of public transport is another solution. The local transport authorities responsible for urban areas need to increase the capacity of public transport and reduce the fare to make them more affordable to the middle class. In other words, making railways⊕ and metro more convenient by capacity addition, and enabling commuters to travel at very affordable rates can incentivise people to use public modes of transport.

Additionally, individuals should make use of the latest technology by booking their journeys through mobile apps on various car-pooling platforms, which can help to drastically reduce the number of automobiles on the road. For instance, the UBER app is now being used by many office-goers in Mumbai, and it has resulted in a win-win situation⊕ for the local road authorities as well as commuters by enabling decongestion at specific bottlenecks⊕. Obviously, such a combination of solutions by the local governments as well as citizens can ensure decongestion in cities to a large extent.

In conclusion, the imposition of higher tax on private vehicles, increasing the capacity of public transport, reducing the fare through subsidy and adopting the concept of car-pooling are the various effective methods that can be used to tackle the menace of traffic congestion in cities.