The rising levels of congestion and air pollution found in most of the world's cities can be attributed directly to the rapidly increasing number of private cars in use. In order to reverse this decline in the quality of life in cities, attempts must be made to encourage people to use their cars less and public transport more. Discuss possible ways to encourage the use of public transport.
Sample Response
Anyone who lives in a city is aware of the increasing number of cars on the road and the kinds of problems this creates are traffic jams, air pollution and longer commuting periods. As economies grow and access to cars expands among more peopleaccess to cars spreads to increasing numbers of people, this trend is likely to worsen. One solution is for governmentsThe solution, it would seem, is for the government to encourage the use of public transport in urban areas, thus decreasing dependence on private carsdependence on the car. One way to stimulate public transport use is to make private car use more expensive and inconvenient. The introduction of tolls onalong urban motorways has been successfully implementedemployed in many cities. Other such measures are high-priced permits for parking in urban areas and limits on the number of parking spacesthe restriction of parking to a limited number of cars. Faced with high costs or no place to park, commuters might be more willingwould perhaps be more willing to abandon their cars in favour of buses or trains. There are also less restrictivepunishing ways of spurring public transport use. The construction of free car-parks at suburban train stations has proven successful in quite a number of countries. This allows commuters to drive part of the way before usingbut then they ultimately use public transport to reachpublic transportation into the central, most congested, urban areas. Moreover, private cars can not carry many passengers at a time yet occupy road spaceoccupy spaces in the street. As the number of cars is increasing in the road so does the traffic jam. Perhaps the major disadvantage of cars, in general, is the serioushuge damage they do to human healththe human health and to the environment. More cars mean more pollution. The environment pollution is a serious issue today and at any cost, we must reduce the amount of pollution. Indeed, making public transport more comfortable and convenient should work to attract more commuters and decrease traffic congestion. Public transport that is convenient and comfortable retains its passengers, much like any business that satisfies its customers. The more commuters committed to taking public transport, the less congestion on city streets.
Why this response received Band 7.0
The response offers several practical measures, including road tolls, parking restrictions, park-and-ride facilities, and improved public transport, with generally clear explanation. Its main limitation is that the discussion briefly shifts from solutions to the harms caused by cars, while the lack of paragraph breaks weakens organisation. The priority is to group each solution into a focused paragraph and develop its likely effect on commuter behaviour.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Response
Several relevant ways to increase public transport use are explained, though the middle section drifts into describing car-related problems.
Replace the general pollution discussion with fuller explanation of how service frequency, cost, or reliability would change commuter choices.
Coherence and Cohesion
The sequence of solutions is broadly logical and cohesive, but the absence of paragraph breaks and a mid-response detour weaken progression.
Organise punitive measures, park-and-ride schemes, and service improvements into separate, clearly focused paragraphs.
Lexical Resource
The response demonstrates good topic-specific range, with some inaccurate collocations and article choices reducing precision.
Use natural combinations such as 'on the road', 'traffic congestion', 'human health', and 'environmental pollution'.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
Varied complex sentences are often accurate, although several malformed comparisons, article errors, and preposition errors occur.
Revise comparative and cause-effect structures, especially sentences linking the rising number of cars to worsening congestion.
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IELTS Writing Task 2
The rising levels of congestion and air pollution found in most of the world's cities can be attributed directly to the rapidly increasing number of private cars in use. In order to reverse this decline in the quality of life in cities, attempts must be made to encourage people to use their cars less and public transport more. Discuss possible ways to encourage the use of public transport.
Your response
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