Single correct option
The best summary of the paragraph is required.
Urban planners have long assumed that widening roads reduces congestion by increasing capacity for existing traffic. Decades of data from cities that have added lanes to relieve bottlenecks show instead that traffic volumes rise to fill the new capacity within a few years, a phenomenon researchers call induced demand: drivers who previously avoided a route, travelled at off-peak times, or used other transport switch back once driving becomes easier, restoring congestion to roughly its earlier level. Cities that have instead removed road capacity have often seen a comparable, if smaller, reverse effect, with some traffic simply evaporating rather than relocating.
Urban planners have long assumed that widening roads reduces congestion by increasing capacity for existing traffic. Decades of data from cities that have added lanes to relieve bottlenecks show instead that traffic volumes rise to fill the new capacity within a few years, a phenomenon researchers call induced demand: drivers who previously avoided a route, travelled at off-peak times, or used other transport switch back once driving becomes easier, restoring congestion to roughly its earlier level. Cities that have instead removed road capacity have often seen a comparable, if smaller, reverse effect, with some traffic simply evaporating rather than relocating.
- A. Widening roads is an ineffective and outdated planning strategy that all cities should abandon immediately.
- B. Adding road capacity tends not to durably reduce congestion because induced demand draws in traffic that fills the new space, and removing capacity can produce a partial reverse effect.
- C. Traffic congestion is caused entirely by drivers who choose convenience over public transport whenever roads are widened.
- D. Cities that remove road capacity always see all of the affected traffic disappear rather than move elsewhere.
Show answer and solution
Answer: (B) Adding road capacity tends not to durably reduce congestion because induced demand draws in traffic that fills the new space, and removing capacity can produce a partial reverse effect.
The paragraph's core claim is that added capacity gets filled by induced demand rather than durably cutting congestion, with removal producing a partial reverse effect ('some traffic simply evaporating'). Option 2 captures both halves accurately and proportionately. Option 1 is an overreaching prescription the paragraph never makes. Option 3 wrongly assigns sole blame to driver choice. Option 4 overstates 'evaporating' traffic as total when the paragraph says only 'some.'
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