A debate is going on between people about whether to increase the amount of money that is put into public transport or to use these resources to get better roads for private cars. In my opinion, the first choice has more benefits for the environment and so it is preferable due to the climate emergency we are facing right now.
As global warming has become a serious problem in this world, reducing gas emission is a crucial task that all of us must tackle. In my opinion, we can achieve it in two steps with public transport. First, investing in new electric vehicles would drastically reduce the carbon footprint that buses have on the environment. Secondly, buses have more seats available than a standard car, and carrying more people per vehicle will drastically decrease the number of vehicles on the roads, leading to less emissions in total.
Despite the advantages just mentioned of public transport, in reality the latter is far from being widely used (especially in my country), because it usually doesn’t reach rural zones where the majority of people live. Therefore, all these people must use a private car for their movements, and improving the quality of roads will directly impact the tire wear and the fuel consumption. However, extending the public transport network can easily sort out this problem and all the people will benefit from a cheaper service since private cars are quite expensive to maintain.
In conclusion, even though private cars are an easy solution for allowing people to move freely, investing more in public transport may have a profound impact on air pollution and the environment in general, and these days this fact has become a priority to take seriously into account.