There is a good deal of evidence that increasing car use is contributing to global warming and having other undesirable effects on people’s health and well-being. What can be done to discourage people from using their cars?

Owning a car is easier in contemporary society due to low prices, serial production and people’s high demands. Nevertheless, according to many scientific researches, mass car ownership is one of various factors causing climate change and having other unexpected impact on citizen’s health and welfare. In the following essay, several approaches will be introduced with the aim of restricting unnecessary car use.

To begin with, the first possible measure is to impose high tax on petrol-powered cars and fossil fuel. Governments should enact policies in order to raise the costs of fuel-powered vehicles, petrol and annual road tax. An example for this is that nations in Scandinavian peninsula are of the highest petrol prices compared with other areas in the world. This scheme contributes to the reduction of fossil fuel consumption. Thanks to this, the Scandinavian citizens decide to commute by other alternative modes of transport.

Another feasible means of this circumstance is that manufacturers should produce more eco-friendly vehicles. Law-makers should execute strategies or campaigns so as to encourage enterprises to manufacture various types of vehicles such as hybrid and electric cars. These means of transport reduce the greenhouse gases. Moreover, they also have low maintenance costs due to the fact that electric motors are of fewer moving parts than petrol-powered engines. Nonetheless, pedestrians could be in danger because these cars produce less noise.

Evidence suggests that if public transport options are plentiful, convenient and reliable; people will commute by these modes of transport frequently. For instance, when it comes to Japan, the most significant point is its railway network. Thanks to this thick railway network, Japanese citizens can reach everywhere in cities. Therefore, most Japanese individuals use public transport as their main modes of transport on a daily basis.

To sum up, the measures mentioned above are likely to happen in an effort to change people’s mindset of car ownership. However, if every approach is accomplished separately, this situation is unlikely to be different. As the result, investing in practical alternatives is really necessary.