(Model essay) General Training exam in Sydney, Australia, December 2011

(This question taken from IELTS-blog.com.)

Public transportation could be made free of charge. Are there more advantages or disadvantages to this change?

Most large cities today boast numerous public transit options, available to residents for a fee. Whether providing these options free of charge is a positive thing is often a highly debated topic. I argue that felt making public transportation available free of charge ramifies more advantages than disadvantages. This will be proven by looking at how a free public transportation system encourages more environmentally friendly living and provides accessibility to low-income individuals.

For one, encouraging people to use public transportation through fare elimination has many benefits to the environment. For example, as more people use a city’s public transit system, the congestion that city experiences on the road is greatly reduced. Having fewer vehicles on the road in turn reduces a city’s overall carbon footprint immensely. Thus, the benefit to removing public transportation fares can be seen.

In addition to this, allowing people to use a city’s transportation services without charge can be exceptionally helpful to low-income residents. For instance, any city that employs this change would empower its people with the ability to live and work in entirely different parts of a city, regardless of their economical situation. This would thus heighten a low-income earner’s chances of gaining financial ground. As this example shows, privileging a city’s people with free transit service boasts more benefits than drawbacks.

After analyzing the above, it is clear that removing the fare charged to public transit passengers has more pros than cons. This alternative should be considered as a future growth option for emerging cities.