Recently many have been demanding increased government investment in transportation infrastructure such as highways, while others are in favor of efficient public transportation means. This essay will discuss both sides before presenting my opinion, which is in favor of increasing public transportation budgets.
Effective road network is imperative to all types of modern transportation – ranging from delivering goods to moving individuals. Taking goods as an example, road transportation is required for several products such fuel and produce due to the lack of accessibility of airports and seaports to inner parts of a country. Moreover, air transport is costly while sea transport is slow, this is where roads fill in the gap for being sufficiently swift and cost-effective. Furthermore, high capacity roads ease traffic congestion which facilitates the use of both private and public transport vehicles which enables individuals and goods to arrive at their destinations on time. Another benefit is that roads make unexplored land accessible for human activity and are often one of the first infrastructure projects when constructing new settlements for any purpose.
On the other hand, public transportation is critical for fluid functioning of cities especially key commercial hubs. Firstly, potent shared transportation serves as an affordable alternative to private vehicles which not only are often taxed for their hydrocarbon fuel usage, but also require regular maintenance. This discourages individuals from opting for private cars and directly contributes to easing traffic congestion. Consider the example of ten individuals, each commuting to work on their cars, this would result in ten cars traveling on the road, whereas one bus can accommodate significantly more than ten individuals. Additionally, effective public transportation could be a sustainable source of income for the government, thereby raising its revenues which can be channeled into other important sectors such as health.
In my opinion, investing in public transportation should be of higher priority than investing in road network. Although investing in quality roads reduces congestion, studies have shown that this improvement is often temporary as citizens are encouraged to purchase cars. Secondly, efficient government funded transportation network frees road capacity for commercial transport as individuals realize its cost efficiency.
In conclusion, I side with expanding shared transportation means since its benefits outweigh the benefits of investing in road networks. This is because, public transportations eases traffic congestion, frees road capacity for much needed commercial transport and is cost-effective for its users.