Traffic jam is nowadays one of the burning issues all over the world. Losing valuable work hours and a rise in air pollution are posing a serious threat to daily life of human being. Developing public transport systems and providing more roads to move freely-both of these two policies can be taken into account by governments while budgeting. It seems to me that a balanced approach of these two solutions should be taken with the proper use of land.
Investing more budget on public transport can inspire people to leave their own cars and thereby facilitates its usage. Firstly, if people find comfort using buses, trums or any other public transports, they will not use their cars. Additionally, one bus can carry more passengers than two or three cars. Adding to that, less cars on streets means less pollution. For example,Netherland has shifted to using more public transportions and has been able to reduce a significant amount of air pollution.
On other hand, overall road capacity can be increased by building more roads and highways. If government can provide its money on building roads with proper planning amd doing all kind of traffic surveys, it really can be a great solution to traffic congestion. In addition to that, vehicles can be diverted to other roads to lessen traffic congestion. But, in case of pollution, building more roads and highways is not merely a good solution as number of vehicles will increase and pollute the environment consequently.
To find a better solution to optimize traffic congestion and pollution is now a challenge for governments. A proper planning of land use with a balanced approach containing optimal roads and promoting public transportations should be the main focus while investing money by governments.