The first car appeared on British roads in 1888. By the year 2000, there may be as many as 29 million vehicles on the British roads. Alternative forms of transport should be encouraged and international laws introduced to control car ownership and use. What are your views on this issue?

Modern life is almost impossible without motorised transportation and people are to move so frequently that they always want to own cars. In fact, transportation has become one of the most important parts and parcels of our lives. As the number of population is increasing day by day, so do their demands and needs for modern transportation facilities and that is why the number of vehicles has increased rapidly all over the world. However, for the last few years, air pollution has reached an intolerable level and it is the motorised vehicles that have been creating this acute problem with other factors. Currently, almost 58 million vehicles are running alone on the roads of Britain and day by day this number will increase geometrically. In fact, the problem began with the rapid development and growth of the cities and because of the increasing demand of people and it is badly needed to control it for our own benefits. It is true that with the development of the civilisation, the number of cars has increased on the streets and resulting air pollution, accidents, scarcity of fuels, sound pollution, and so on. But we can not avoid or cut off cars from our life overnight because life today has become hasty enough with routine work, office jobs, travelling, holiday activities, amusement etc. and without cars, it would be more troublesome. Therefore I believe that it is important to control the use of cars and to introduce an alternative form of the transportation system as well. Increasing the price of the fuel might be a solution as it will discourage people to drive cars so frequently and for those who are settling their mind to buy a new car. Cars emit Carbon dioxide, Carbon-Mono-Oxide and other harmful chemicals which are dangerous for the environment as well as for public health. To reduce the use of cars, we can introduce some alternative transportation systems like the underground railway, city coach service, train service, subtle train etc. If the transports are easily available and comfortable, people will be encouraged to use those to reduce the cost of owning private cars. Some non-motorized vehicles such as bicycles and rickshaws can be the substitute for the motorised vehicles. Once people are aware of the effects of global warming and air pollution, they will definitely use those forms of transportations for their own betterment. Those vehicles are environment-friendly and in some countries, people have already started using bicycles instead of cars, for example, China. If we can introduce river-based cheap and user-friendly transports and try to make them favourite among people, then it will be definitely helpful for the environment. This type of river-based transportation system has been already introduced in countries like Brazil. On the other hand, introducing a new law to regulate car ownership is also important. If there were an existing rule that any family cannot buy more than one car, the rapid increase of the car could have been controlled. Besides, the government should introduce a heavy tax on purchasing cars. In summary, increasing use of cars and fuels is an acute problem for all of us. This problem can only be solved by introducing a new form of cheap and comfortable transports and by enforcing and introducing new strict laws. Otherwise, life in cities will become tougher with traffic jam and serious air pollution.