Band 5+: Increasing the price of petrol is the best way to solve growing traffic and pollution problems. To what extent do you agree or disagree? What other measures do you think might be effective?

Since the appearance of the automotive industry, the people in charge have been seeking the solution for traffic jams and pollutants overwhelmedness – one of which is petrol’s price inflation. In my opinion, this will not work out thoroughly during the climax of travelling urge, however, education or infrastructure investment is going to bring out fruitful results.

To kick off, it is impossible to remove personal vehicles completely. Recently, Tesla, Vinfast and other environmentally-friendly electricity-fueled environmentally-friendly cars brands are taking over the marketplace, and these trends have no signal of slowing down. Therefore, people are going to take advantage of theirs’ personal vehicles no matter how high is the price of petrol. Furthermore, it is shown by a recent study that food industry is responsible for over two-thirds of overall pollutants, while traffic and travelling services hardly impact the pollution circumstances. Hence, people need to be supplied with radical and pollutants-free source of diet, while changing theirs travelling lifestyle barely resolves the dire situation.

However, education is the long-term tactic that have proved to work out. Lately, there has been a report pointed out that more than 80% of the Generation Z acknowledge the grim reality of pollution. In near future, with that knowledge in mind, they are going to build an eco-friendly community not only with their vehicles but with any fuel that is powering their machineries. What is more, in the Third World countries, a more concerned issue is the infrastructure design. For example, comparing street zoning in Hanoi – the capital of Vietnam to New York City – the most lively place in Manhattan, people can easily see through the significant differences and Vietnamese traffic problems. As a result, it is recommended that the government would spend more for improving the scenery.

Ultimately, vehicle abundancy is not the root the traffic and pollution problems, there are other measures must be considered rather than petrol price.