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Improving roads and highways or improving public transportation?



123nnt 4 / 11  
Jun 29, 2011   #1
Topic: Should governments spend more money on improving roads and highways, or should governments spend more money on improving public transportation (buses, trains, subways)? Why? Use specific reasons and examples to develop your essay.

Nowadays the amount of traffic has increased rapidly, which leads to big traffic jams every day. There are two main solutions: improving roads, highways and improving public transportation. There have been many debates about which solution we should focus on. In my opinion, upgrading the public transportation system brings more advantages.

First, let's analyze why improving roads and highways is not a good option. As we all know, the number of cars has rose tremendously in the last few decades. Building roads do not solve the puzzle about traffic jams but encourage more and more people use their own cars instead of buses, subways. Moreover, it is very expensive to invest in roads and highways projects, and these projects often bring no good results. When roads or highways are being repaired, construction companies have to close them and people have to use other streets. This can cause a street to be overcrowded with cars; therefore, a lot of people will be stuck in traffic jams. An American wastes about one week each year in traffic jams. Traffic jams make the economy lose a lot of money each year. Cars in traffic jams cannot move, but they continue to emit harmful smoke to the air, which will make the global warming issue more severe.

Another reason why upgrading public transit service is preferable is that it alleviates the environmental issues. If we have good public transportation, more and more people will use buses, subways instead of using cars. The amount of traffic will decrease; therefore, there will be less harmful smoke, the main cause of air pollution and global warming, in the air. Furthermore, we have to know that governments work for the people. Many people in the middle and lower class, who account for large portions in population, use public transportation because the cost is cheap. If we build more roads, only people in the upper class can be beneficial from this. A good government is a government that serves all people, not only a small group of wealthy individuals. If all people use buses or subways, they will be more aware of the sense of community.

Those are the reasons why I think governments should concentrate on improving public transportation. I use buses as much as I can. If we all use buses or subways, this world will be a better world.

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Thanks in advance. I'm trying to write at least one essay a day :D (well, I think this quotation, "practice makes perfect", is true), and there are a lot of essays that are waiting to be posted here! I will need to read and give feedback in other threads a lot.

apieceof 3 / 5  
Jun 30, 2011   #2
Hi! 123nnt! I guess this is the topic from TOEFL.

However, all you wrote are well-done except one line I wanna remind ~

First, let's analyze why improving roads and highways is not a good option.

My writing teacher has once told me that try use more formal words when writing the ecademic essay like TOEFL. So I think using "Let's" on your topic is somehow inappropaite. Maybe you can write

First, improving roads and highways is not a good option for the reason that the number of cars has rose tremendously in the last few decades.

Above are just my little advice, thank you.
andytranhung 4 / 7  
Jun 30, 2011   #3
the amount of traffic has increased rapidly, which leads to big traffic jams every day.

It should be " Leading to"
OP 123nnt 4 / 11  
Jun 30, 2011   #4
yes, it's a topic from TOEFL. I get this one from the Official guide to the TOEFL iBT. There are 185 topics in that book.

Thanks everybody a lot, especially EF_Susan!!!
And it's true that an American wastes one week each year in traffic jams (I read an article about traffic jams somewhere, but I can't remember exactly where this article came from)


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