Traffic congestion and city transport

The obvious cause is that vehicle numbers have grown much faster than the roads. In my city, families that owned one motorbike twenty years ago now own three and perhaps a car, while the streets were laid out for bicycles. But I'd add a less obvious one: everything worth travelling to sits in the same few central districts. When the offices, the best schools and the major hospitals are all packed into the centre, the whole city has to flow in one direction at seven and back again at five. As for solutions, building wider roads is the instinctive response, yet it rarely works for long, because a new lane simply invites more cars until it's as clogged as the old one. I'd put the money into a metro and a bus network frequent enough that people don't need a timetable, and I'd move some government offices and universities out to the suburbs. Charging drivers to enter the centre is effective too. That said, it's only fair once a decent alternative exists; otherwise you're just taxing people for having no choice. Will things improve? In the short term I'm pessimistic, since car ownership is still rising and rail projects run years behind schedule. Over twenty years I'm more hopeful, partly because working from home has shown that not every job needs a daily commute, and staggered hours could flatten the rush-hour peak.