Car ownership has increased so rapidly over the past 30 years that many cities in the world are one big traffic jam. How true is this statement? What measures can government take to discourage people from using cars?

Over the past three decades, several cities in the world have seen massive traffic congestion on their streets due to a huge growth in private vehicle ownership. This has caused problems such as environmental pollution which impacts public health negatively and reduces productivity. The government should focus on improving public transport infrastructure and apply legislative measures to reduce the number of cars on the road. It is well accepted by experts that availability of safe and reliable public transport results in a reduction in the number of people using their cars to commute. Authorities must provide more buses to commute within the city. Investing in mass transit systems such as the Tube in London is another effective way of reducing the traffic congestion. In order to move the buses faster, dedicated bus corridor can be built such as the one in the city of Bogota. A train service from the suburban areas to the city centre is another solution to this problem. This method has been used successfully in several cities such as Mumbai. Legislative measures such as increasing the tax on cars will discourage people from buying new. The city authorities can discourage people from bringing their cars to busy commercial and shopping districts by charging a heavy parking fee. Alternatively, governments can encourage people to car pool by adopting the “odd-even” rule. According to this rule odd license numbered cars ply on odd number days and vice versa. This measure has been successfully used in Delhi for the past few years. In conclusion, I agree that the increase in personal vehicles in the past thirty years has contributed to massive traffic jams in our cities. However, governments can successfully reduce traffic congestion on the roads of their cities by applying the above infrastructure development and legislative measures.