Personal Transportation vs Public Transportation

 

On my plane trip to the Philippines I had expected Manila to be a beautiful island with nature trails, tropical flowers, white sand and palm trees overflowing with coconuts outlining the border of the beaches. I was taken by surprise when I stepped out of the airport to find enormous skyscrapers; cars backed up bumper to bumper for miles in every direction that I turned my head for as far as I could see and a distinguishable stench of unclean air. My skin felt violated just standing there on the edge of the sidewalk. It felt as if my skin was being penetrated by miniscule pollutant dust particles. The city dwellers rushed around with handkerchiefs pressed against their faces to prevent the harmful chemicals from reaching their lungs. The traffic was so awful that if your license plate ended with an odd number you could only drive on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, and Sundays. If your license plate ended with an even number you could only drive on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. It was mind-boggling. It was like any other large city I had been to, only, more congested and more polluted. Who would’ve thought?

This isn’t a single sad tale about an island out in the Pacific Ocean. The truth is the way the population is growing and places are expanding traffic is also greatly increasing. For example, a recent report from the U.S. Department of Transportation in Hosansky’s article on Traffic Congestion estimated that, “in 1994 governments at the federal, state, and local levels spent $124.5 billion on the nations transportation system. That figure has certainly risen sharply since 1998, when Congress passed the 6-year $217.9 billion Transportation Equity Act”(par.22). In just four years America has spent $93.4 billion dollars to build and repair roads. Citizens in agreement with constructing more roads do not realize that in five years the new roads will be just as congested and land will be even more scarce for further construction. Another negative aspect of constructing new roads is that, once new roads are built, more shopping centers, surplus housing, food chains, and other sprawling suburbs pop up. These all contribute to more cars, which results in more traffic congestion. This also has a grave affect on the environment. More construction and cars causes air pollution, poor land-use management, increased flooding and destroyed wildlife habitat. What can we do to prevent this chaos? The answer is public transportation. If you live in a busy metropolitan area, a medium sized city, suburb, a somewhat rural area, or even on the water, after reading this paper you will find that public transportation is actually cheaper and easier than personal transportation. Large cities like Washington D.C. or Manila where traffic is endless or rush hour is problematic, college towns where the university is expanding and parking is becoming a major issue, and even in Venice where you can only use boats; Venetians suffer from similar problems too. Maneuvering around narrow canals and rough waters is hard enough. With Venetians using their own personal transportation it makes the canals tighter to pass through and water even rougher. Growing up I thought Williamsburg, Virginia, my hometown, was one of the last places to have to worry about traffic problems. Since then the town has expanded and greatly increased in population and of course cars. It’s a medium sized college town that also attracts tourists to our rich historical settlements. Everything is spread out, so many residents own at least two or more cars. In the summertime, parking in the main part of the city is impossible. Since our town has to maintain it’s historical richness, parking garages are not allowed. With the town expanding and growing, traffic patterns and one-lane roads cannot withhold the capacity of cars that need to get through. This causes long waiting periods at stop lights, congestion on the roads, money for taxes to reconstruct roads, and bitter citizens with road rage. Also, for those who think auto theft only happens in sketchy downtown areas, think again. I worked for an amusement park where there was a separate patrolled employee parking lot. One night after a long day of work I came to find my car had been broken into and my cd player ripped away and stolen from my car. Public transportation can not only save time and energy, but also prevent bad things from happening to you and your vehicle. The many uses of public transportation do not stop there. Busy parents and families with working teenagers that have not obtained drivers licenses or just want a ride to the mall can use public transportation and it will save their families time, gas money, and mileage on their cars.

Public transportation is the best solution in many different situations. Whether it is taking the metro, a water taxi, or using the inner campus shuttle, it’s the most efficient way to get around and not worry about car theft. The opposing viewpoint would say that people like the comfort of their own cars, they don’t like waiting for a bus, being late for a bus, memorizing bus schedules, taking the wrong train, missing a stop, or paying a fee each time to ride. However, when analyzing the situation public transportation is in many ways cheaper and easier. Drivers must first pay for a car, for gas, car insurance, pay for parking, take care of car maintenance such as oil changes, tire rotations, inspections, worry about accidents, auto theft, speeding tickets, parking tickets, places to park, and things breaking down.

Besides practical uses there are also environmental issues at hand. Our world is becoming polluted from the excess use of personal transportation. In major cities all over the world pollution is affecting individual people health-wise. According to Cooper, author of the article Energy and the Environment, “High population density inevitably means heavy traffic and high-levels of tailpipe emissions of smog-producing pollutants. In the summer, those pollutants are transformed by heat and sunlight into ground-level ozone. City dwellers also suffer other consequences of air pollution, such as respiratory distress and eye irritation”(last screen). It is because of this that citizens have to wear masks or use handkerchiefs when outside in the open air so they don’t breathe harmful chemicals into their lungs. Our earth is something irreplaceable. Why do we ignore these problems such as, “decline of water quality, global warming, increases in highway carnage from incidents, visual blight of the cityscape, smog and haze in the sky”(Long. Par. 2)? Many people think things like the disfigurement of the cityscape during rush hour and the haziness in the sky is simply an abstract notion or thought. For those who waste endless time in their cars every day, for days upon days, weeks upon weeks, months and years can say that you cannot ignore the amount of traffic congestion(Long. Par. 2).

I will never forget my experience in Manila, trying to drive downtown to visit different relatives. I fell asleep everytime we drove anywhere, because it took so long to get there, I felt like minutes, hours of my life were wasting away, and the traffic congestion gave me a pulsing, throbbing headache. The two times that I became ill on my vacation were both when I was in Manila. Once I opened my mouth to yawn and I didn’t cover it with my handkerchief and it felt as if I had swallowed a saw-dust like ball full of filth and grime. I started coughing and it eventually gave me that queasy feeling in my stomach. Then I would feel paralyzed, where I couldn’t be comfortable sitting up or lying down and I couldn’t sleep. It was the worst part of the trip and it certainly put a damper on my vacation.

It is clear to see the advantages of public transportation in place of personal transportation in practical everyday routines and also towards the environment. If people ignore this problem and drive in ignorance, congestion and pollution will continue to plague our society and gradually worsen from the growing population and expansion taking place all over the world. It is our responsibility to not leave behind a problem for our future generations to deal with. One person cannot change the ways things are. It takes a global effort to fix a worldwide problem.

Упражнение 2. Составьте аннотацию и подготовьте пересказ текста из упражнения № 1.

 

Упражнение 3. Прочитайте и переведите текст.

Transport in London

London is a huge metropolitan area that is why public transport is vitally important for the city dwellers as well as tourists, for whom it might be quite confusing to get about London. Unlike Russian public transport, British transport system is reliable and quite cheap. However, due to the increase of car ownership, London traffic has become 3 times as heavy as it used to be and the length of the traffic jams increased dramatically. As a result, the problem of fatal car accidents appeared.

Apart from taxies, there are 2 main methods of transport in London: the Underground and the buses. Buses are best for sightseeing, especially double-decker buses. However, they are rather slow, especially during the rush hour. On the traditional double-decker there were no doors and passengers leaped up and off the bus and conductor was moving about and collecting fares from the passengers. However, nowadays fares are given directly to the driver or to the machine. Moreover, London transport has recently introduced single-decker buses which are called "Red Arrows".

London Underground, which is also called Tube, offers people more convenient, speedy and direct form of travel. The Underground was opened at the end of the 19th century, in 1884. Now there are more than 270 stations. You can recognize the Tube stations by the red and blue signs at the street level. There is no fixed fare, because it depends on the distance you travel. You can buy a ticket or a ticket-stub from a booking office clerk or from a machine. There are 8 different underground lines in the London Underground system. The travelers, who are not familiar with the Tube, should always consult the map.

So, London transport system is rapid and fast, but sometimes it can be really confusing.

Упражнение 4. Подготовьте доклад по теме «City transport in USA».

Упражнение 5. Составьте 10 предложений со словами из лексического минимума.

Упражнение 6. Вставьте some, any, no, где необходимо.

1. Did you have... salt in the soup?

2. I’ve got... money.,Give me... money, please.

3. Will you take... of these photographs?

4. They haven’t got... children.

5. She doesn’t like... apples.

6. Are there... fruit-trees in your garden?

7. Did they ask you... questions? — Yes, they asked....

8. Does he make... mistakes in his dictations?

9. Му friend has bought... new shoes.

10.... people there are very unfriendly.

11. Do you like... oranges?

12. Where can I get... cigarettes?

13. They waited... ten minutes.

14. You may come at... time.

15.... people like to spend weekend in the country.

 

Упражнение 7. Вставьте something, anything, nothing или everything„

1. He saw... strange in the dark.

2. Have you... to read?

3. Did... help you to do your work?

4. May I draw... I like?

5. I’m all right.... happened.

6. They don’t know... about it.

7. Would you like... special for dinner?

8. This pupil wants to know... about animals.

9. Will you have... to eat?

10. There is... in the box.

 

Упражнение 8. Вставьте something, anything, nothing или everything.

1. Give me... to eat, please. I’m hungry.

2. I think they don’t tell me... about this accident.

3. It’s dark in the room. I see....

4. What are you doing? —... special.

5. You may choose... you like.

6. Did he tell you the last news? — No, he told.....

7. Give me your hand, please. I didn’t see....

8.... has changed in my city.

9. Is there... interesting to see in your town?

10. There is... in my pocket. •

 

Лексический минимум

breakdown - авария

buddy seat - коляска (мотоцикл)

cabstand - стоянка(такси)

helmet - каска, шлем

crossroad - перекресток

garage - автомастерская, гараж

highway - шоссе

main - магистраль

passenger compartment - салон авто

park - парковка

parking place - стоянка

pedestrian - пешеход

ring road - кольцевая дорога

refuelling - автозаправка

sidewallk - тротуар

station - станция

stowaway - пассажир без билета

traffic lights - светофор

transit - транзит

vehicle - транспортное средство