Urbanization has brought the term traffic congestion into existence. A school of thought believes that traffic can only be controlled by limiting daily commuters’ need for travel. However, I am not convinced that this is the only or the best way. Though it has some impact, other measures are required.
Apparently, reasons that substantiate the claim that “the less frequently people travel in a city, the fewer traffic jam they create” – require thorough analysis. Firstly, city dwellers commute daily primarily for their study, business, job, shopping and social needs. Some of these could be done from home as the advancement of technology has made it possible to learn, work and shop online. This will reduce traffic to a certain extent. To illustrate, a survey conducted by the Australian Traffic Authority outlines that 75% of commuters in private cars travel for shopping, job and education, and it is clear that if people can work from home, do online shopping and enrol in online courses, traffic congestion would be reduced, if not solved.
However, working from home is not permissible for a great number of professionals such as nurses, builders, doctors, police and so on. Therefore, they must travel to and from their workplaces daily. Moreover, online learning cannot replace the classroom-based education system, and online shopping is yet to substitute the traditional shopping method. Thus it is evident that controlling the necessity of travel for the day-to-day activities of citizens is not the only way to manage traffic problems. Improving public transportation, carpooling and encouraging pedestrians and cyclists could be some great solutions.
To conclude, limiting city dwellers’ needs for their daily commute may help control traffic problems to some extent, but other measures should be in place. The government should encourage people to use eco-friendly transportation like cycles to tackle bad traffic.