The best way for governments to solve the problem of traffic congestion is providing free public transport in 24 hours per day, and seven days a week. To what extent do you agree or disagree?

In recent years, traffic jam, especially in rush hours, has substantial impacts on society in many countries, that requires a host of approaches to address this long-term problem. Although the idea of using mass transit without charge appears reasonable, this cannot be viewed as the ultimate way for governments to combat traffic congestion.

On the one hand, there are a number of reasons why free public transport can do more harm than good. First, by applying no-charge service, the government could face to a huge demand of users as the quantity of people transferring from using individual vehicles to public transport increases significantly. For instance, commuters will simultaneously choose mass transit, such as bus and subway, in order to reduce transport cost if this idea is approved. Second, since many people shift their primary mean of transportation at the same time, meager-income employees and students will have less opportunity to use this service. This means that sometimes they have to find other vehicles for usage instead to not impact their work and study.

On the other hand, the state leaders should combine various ways including short-term and long-term solutions to deal with traffic congestion. In fact, changing schedule of a day, either at work or at school, can reduce the number of people moving on the streets at a same time. For example, in Hanoi, by changing the go-to-work time of employees differing from go-to-school time of students, the flow of transportation in the morning decrease remarkably. In addition, government should allocate more funds to transport infrastructure to meet the high demand of transport users. If there are passing bridges constructed and roads broadened, people will have many selections for their movement, especially in rush hours.

In conclusion, public transport brings broad-based benefits to the users but free service of this transportation could have potential problems. Therefore, the government should apply many approaches including mass transit in order to combat traffic jam.