Traffic pollution has been a significant problem since the dawn of gasoline-consuming vehicles, which create carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide as a by-product. By creating public transportation with cheap ticket prices, governments aim towards less traffic pollution by decreasing the use of personal cars. Although the idea is decent, I firmly believe that it is more efficient for governments to invest in cars that do not consume fossil fuels such as electric cars.
The concept that world leaders think that public transportation can decrease air-based pollution such as smog and dust particles is that with increased amount of public transportation comes less need of personal cars. However, the price for public transportation is still expensive for citizens, for instance, a BTS sky train in Thailand costs 5 dollars per person. This is a reason why people prefer personal cars to public transport.
Even though governments somehow reduce the costs of public transport, people would still use their own cars. This is because personal cars are not limited by destination like public transportation. While there is no deny that public transportation can travel to many places, but public transport is still limited by stations, for instance, a train must travel to a train station. However, personal cars can travel to anywhere if there is a road.
As we can see, no matter how much governments invest in their public transportation, only a few people will use them. Therefore, governments should invest in research for environment-healthy vehicles such as electric cars and hydrogen cars. Moreover, the technology can be applied to public transportation as well, creating a public transportation system that produces no pollution to the environment.
In conclusion, governments should not waste resources in improving public transportation prices, since people prefer their own cars. In contrast, they should focus in improving cars that have no pollution by-product and apply the same technology to public transportation to reduce pollution.