The volume of traffic in many cities in the world today continues to expand. This (36) ______ many problems including serious air pollution, lengthy delays, and the greater risk (37) ______ accidents. Clearly, something must be done, but it is often difficult to persuade people to change their habits and leave their cars at home.
One possible (38) ______ is to make it more expensive for people to use their cars by increasing charges for parking and bringing in tougher fines for anyone who (39) ______ the law. In addition, drivers could be required to pay for using particular routes at different times of the day. This system(40) ______ as ‘road pricing’, is already being introduced in a number of cities, using a special electronic card (41) ______ to windscreen of the car.
Another way of (42) ______ with the problem is to provide cheap parking on the outskirts of the city, and strictly control the number of vehicles allowed into the centre. Drivers and their passengers then use a special bus service for the (43) ______ stage of their journey.
Of course, the most important (44) ______ is to provide good public transport. However, to get people to give up the comfort of their cars, public transport must be felt to be reliable, convenient and comfortable with fares (45) ______ at an acceptable level.