The most effective way to solve traffic and transport problems in
the cities is to encourage people from suburbs or the countryside to live in
the cities. To what extent do you agree or disagree?
Will shifting the population from the country and outer-fringes of
the cities to the urban locations help in easing up the predicament of high
traffic density, and challenges faced in transportation. Many have hailed this
proposal, others deride it and term it as impractical.
Many advocate implementing this idea and feel it could bring a sea change in the way people live in urban societies. This view is primarily based on the assumption that the majority of motorists and public modes of transit that ply / use the city roads hail from areas lying outside the municipal limits of the urban locations. Those entering and leaving the cities must brave long travel and distance every day. If these people were made to dwell in the same urban locations, they would be spared of covering long distances every day. Also, many may feel encouraged to switch to public modes of transit like buses and metro trains if their homes and workplaces lie in close proximity to each other. This would surely help in thinning the traffic.
Having said that, the ground realities of the urban settings and
the traffic issues these areas face are far more complicated than this idea
proposes, which is too simplistic. On delving deeper into the migration of
urbanites to the outskirts and distant locations, one can easily arrive at the
conclusion that the source of this outward movement has been the intense
congestion caused by the dense in-city traffic, due to which the vehicles roll
at a snail’s pace. So how could shifting people back into the cities help
surmount this challenge.
Hence, this proposal lacks substance and will create chaos instead of fetching a long term mechanism to resolve the mess that plagues urban life, the unbearable yet in-escapable traffic snarls that urbanites encounter on a daily basis.
