IELTS General Training Essay: Urban Infrastructure

Vocabulary

What do the words in bold below mean? Make some notes on paper to aid memory and then check below.

Many policymakers feel that the optimal counter to traffic issues in urban areas is increased funding for infrastructure. In my opinion, though this funding may have a marginal effect, there are other, potentially more impactful, regulations.

Supporters of investment in infrastructure contend it is a direct and pragmatic solution. As cities become larger, they face inevitable traffic problems caused by overcrowding and deteriorating roads. Improving the existing infrastructure can include repaving these roads to reduce accidents and slow driving, building additional public transportation lines for subways, creating biking lanes, widening streets, constructing overpasses, and so on. Combined, the theoretical result of these changes will be an alleviation of current strain on transport systems. However, in practice, in large cities such as New York City, rarely produce any actual difference in traffic conditions as they cannot keep pace with growing populations.

Instead, governments must consider more drastic policies. The first such reform would be to ban or severely limit the use of private vehicles. A good example of this would be in certain European cities that have enacted single day bans or raised taxes on automobile purchases. Since cars occupy the majority of the space on roads, while often only transporting one or two individuals, they are the least efficient and slowest modes of travel. Secondly, governments can subtly shift housing policies to engender dramatic effects. Instead of allowing cities to build upwards, through skyscrapers and tall apartment buildings, they can limit the number of floors on buildings to encourage a more horizontal cityscape. The result of this would be to spread out workplaces and lower congestion levels generally.

In conclusion, there is little doubt that improved infrastructure could alleviate traffic congestion in cities to an extent; however, the best remedy is to pass laws concerning private vehicles and housing. Governments should implement these long-term policies over short-term fixes.