It is believed by some that allocating funds to expanding train and subway systems will address the congestion issue, while others consider that adding new lanes will tackle this problem. This essay makes comparisons of both and chooses the most preferred option.
My first point is that if public transportation is being developed, it will incentivize residents to use fewer cars, so the traffic will be freed. For instance, a large proportion of European cities such as Vienna or Berlin have thin streets owing to historical reasons and their governments constantly invest money in trains and subway lines. Such policy resulted in the fact that these cities are considered to have one of the lowest traffic congestion rates. As a result, in order to solve the issue with heavily congested roads, it is better to develop public transportation system than build wider roads.
Another aspect is that it was proven by different studies that constructing new roads encourages individuals to use them more and purchase new cars, so the congestion issue might become even more widespread. For example, in the late 70s when cars were becoming more and more popular among the US households, many cities governments decided that the best way to solve this issue will be to expand roads. Unfortunately, this considerably deteriorated the situation, so the roads became even more congested. Therefore, the US cities take the first places in various ratings regarding congestion
In conclusion, not only does constructing wider roads not help to deal with the traffic congestion, but this also typically makes the situation even worser. The best way to address this matter is to develop public transportation, such as building train and subway lines.