Prompt: The best way for governments to solve the problem of traffic congestion is providing free public transport in 24 hours per day, 7 days a week. To what extent do you agree or disagree?

Opinions are largely divided on how to deal with traffic jams, especially in big cities. While some hold the belief that the most effective solution is free mass transit during all time of the year without resting time, I find myself in complete disagreement with this point of view. Ċ Firstly, there are some problems with this solution. One of them is that applying this solution may cause a burden in capitals for the governments due to free tickets. In order to carry out means of public transport, there are different financial requirements such as employees' salaries, fuel costs, purchase of facilities, and so on. Without the only income coming from the commuters by a reasonable charge on the tickets, the governments, as well as the mass transit companies, have to rely on the government funds, resulting in a financial burden in the long-term. Moreover, congestion is likely to happen mostly at rush hours, for example in the morning and evening when people travel back and forth for work. Therefore, this measure leads to a waste in the resources and workforce when running the public transport system 24 hours per day during the week. Ċ Due to these potential drawbacks, other ways that concentrate on the causes of traffic jams are much more promising than free 24-hour transportation. It is obvious that private vehicles, particularly cars, are the main reasons leading to congestion, therefore levying higher taxes on private cars is seemingly workable to lessen the matter. Besides, another cause to the matter needed to be equally considered is that a vast majority of commuters prefer using their own means of transport due to slow speed and low-quality facilities of the buses. Following these cases, the authorities should construct dedicated lanes for public transports only, hence enabling them to speed up. Additionally, upgrading and exchanging old buses, which are equipped with modern facilities like air-conditioners, curtains, bus-stop alarms or automatic reporting voices,... Ċ In conclusion, to address the issue of traffic jams, my firm belief is that some more workable solutions are put under thorough consideration namely private lanes for mass transit, increasing the quality of buses and raising taxes on private cars.