The Road to Ruin

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 538.

The M25, the motorway around London, opened in 1986. Today people call it the biggest car park in Europe. Every morning on the radio we hear about jams, and road repairs, and (a) ________, and which parts of the M25 to avoid. One day soon we will hear “There is a traffic jam all the (b) ________ round the M25 in both directions. If you are driving to work, we advise you to go back home.”

Winston Churchill described the car as the curse of the twentieth (c) ________. This will probably be true of the 21^st (c) ________, (d) ________. It can be very funny to compare advertisements for cars with the reality of driving them. Cars are symbols of freedom, wealth, and masculinity. But when you are (e) ________ in a traffic jam, all cars are just little metal boxes to sit in.

Cities and towns all over the world have a (f) ________ problem, and no government really knows what to do. For one it is not a matter of technology which is stopping us. If we want to build two-level roads, we can do it. If we want trains which can travel at hundreds of miles an hour, we can build them.

The problem is the question of principle. Should we look to road or rail for our transport needs? Should the government or private companies control them? And either way, who should pay?

The people who believe in roads say that cars represent a personal (g) ________ to travel when and where you want to. But on trains and buses – public transport – you have to travel when the (h) ________ says you can.

These people think that if you build more roads, the traffic will move more quickly, but research shows that if there are more roads, there will be more cars to fill them.

By 2010 the number of cars on our roads will double. Environmentalists are saying that we should put more money into public transport. Cars often carry just one (i) ________. If the public transport system works, more people will use it. If trains carry more people, the roads won't be so crowded, and cars pollute the air more than trains.

One characteristic of the people today is that we are a (j) ________ on the move. But it is just possible that soon we won't be able to move another inch, and we'll have to stay exactly where we are!