Governments need to build more roads in metropolitan cities

IELTS Writing Task 2 with sample answer.

You should spend about 40 minutes on this task.

Some say that due to heavy traffic governments need to build more roads in metropolitan cities, while others argue this isn’t the right solution.

To what extent do you agree or disagree?

Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.

Write at least 250 words.

Sample Answer:
Traffic congestion is the most common scenario in metropolitan cities across the world. In many circles, it is argued that government should build more roads and highways in order to curb the pressing issue, while others refute the concept. However, as far as I think building new roads is not a pragmatic solution to the problem and the governments ought to some other measures to combat against the traffic gridlock.

For a start, building new roads is not at all a sensible idea as the most cities have great scarcity of space to construct more roads. Every day hundreds of people come to the cities for several reasons. Thereby, the density of population is increasing day by day. This overpopulation significantly contributes to the shortage of lands for building new roads. Building new roads, thus, is an absurd idea at this current situation.

In contrast, there are other handy steps like encouraging public transport, enforcing traffic laws strictly, and so on. Due to economic solvency, city dwellers tend to have private vehicles for commuting. Consequently, the increasing number of private cars puts pressure on roads that results in traffic jam in the urban areas. In the case, encouraging public transport would be the silver bullet to fight against the traffic congestion. This is because the more and more people will ride public transport, the less and less pressure will be put on the roads. However, another prime cause of traffic jam is neglecting traffic rules. If the traffic rules are imposed strictly, then traffic congestion could be quelled dramatically.

To reiterate, addressing the root causes of a problem can resolve the problem to a great extent. Here, excessive private cars and disobeying the traffic laws are the main cause of traffic jam. Therefore, the government should motivate citizens to use public transport and obey the traffic rules in order to calm the traffic congestion in metropolitan cities.