Topic Of Choice - Essay Example

Traffic Congestion: A Real Threat The world is developing at an unimaginably fast pace, and the US is proud to lead the global development and to guide other nations. One of the major characteristics of this development is, undoubtedly, the progress in communication and transportation. But, unfortunately, a host of problems accompanies any developmental procedure. Even while there is a great feeling about the new developments in the field of transportation, one cannot just neglect the other side of the advancements.

Thus, traffic congestion becomes one of the major threats the world is facing as an aftereffect of the modern advancements. It is particularly the case of US traffic situation. How serious is the problem of traffic congestion? This is a question that has almost been neglected for an enquiry. Or people are just careless about public matters in the blind pursuit of personal interests and comforts. However, as the USA Today reports, “The nations traffic problems are getting worse faster than they can be fixed — even in small cities such as Brownsville, Texas, and Pensacola, Fla.

” (Traffic problems take big bite of commuters time. 2004). It is high time that the question is seriously discussed and some sort of solution arrived at. Reports prove that the problem of traffic congestion is ever increasing. The problem of congestion is more severe in urban areas and factors like the design of the area, geographic features, weather, collisions and vehicle breakdowns and many such, cause this problem. There are, of course, solutions that may effectively solve this. First of all, the allotment of funds is not sufficient to take the necessary action.

Even the allotted fund is not efficiently managed, i.e. it is not used on priority basis. The development of highways and transit systems is not in accordance with the problem of congestion. The capacity expansion of the existing roads and construction of new roads are of prime importance. Public transportation improvement projects would enable more productivity from the existing ones, thus working as a solution. Greater efficiency of the transportation system can help a lot in this regard. More efficient alternate systems must be aimed at, thus encouraging the public reduce the traffic congestion.

The transport system needs to be better managed to make the public use more of the public transportation system rather than individual vehicles. The more the public transportation used, the lesser the traffic congestion will be. Public transportation at peak hours should be becomes the most significant reason for the traffic congestion is the increasing number of private vehicles. “So, the most important solution to the problem of traffic congestion is the increased use of public transport and a tremendous decrease in the number of private vehicles on the roads.

” (Citymayors transport. 2004).Thus, there are many solutions to the present problem in hand. However, public awareness is needed to achieve the elimination of traffic congestion. This serious problem should stay alive in any public discussions of importance. If the threat of this problem is not well identified and checked, it is going to be the major concern for the future generations. The public dialogues these days deviate from the major issues or there is a lack of prioritizing of the issues.

The problem of traffic congestion is as important an issue as many of the issues that get public attention. If we still fail to recognize this and ignore the real threat nothing but a disaster will entail. Let us understand this and work for the good of the world around us.Works citedUSA Today. Traffic problems take big bite of commuters time. Report. 2004. 25 Oct. 2007 .Urban traffic congestion costs the USA $63 billion per annum. City mayors transport. A report by the Texas Transportation Institute. 2004. 25 Oct. 2007 .