[习作点评] argument27 rush-hour traffic jams 习作求互批 [复制链接]

ecnosu
UID：3539862

初级会员

Rank: 3 Rank: 3

声望: 55
寄托币: 337
注册时间: 2014-7-5
精华: 0
帖子: 51

电梯直达

楼主

发表于 2014-10-3 20:55:10 |只看该作者 |倒序浏览

27. The following appeared in a letter to the editor of a local newspaper.
"Commuters complain that increased rush-hour traffic on Blue Highway between the suburbs and the city center has doubled their commuting time. The favored proposal of the motorists' lobby is to widen the highway, adding an additional lane of traffic. But last year's addition of a lane to the nearby Green Highway was followed by a worsening of traffic jams on it. A better alternative is to add a bicycle lane to Blue Highway. Many area residents are keen bicyclists. A bicycle lane would encourage them to use bicycles to commute, and so would reduce rush-hour traffic rather than fostering an increase."
Write a response in which you discuss what specific evidence is needed to evaluate the argument and explain how the evidence would weaken or strengthen the argument.

没计时 532words

   In this letter, the author recommends that a bicycle lane shoud be added to Blue Highway in order to reduce rush-hour traffic. To back his argument, the author mentions commuters' complain about rush-hour traffic jams, the worsening situation of nearby Green Highway and residents' favor of bicycles. However, without more specific evidence, we cannot fully accept the recommendation and  expect that the policy will meet its intended purpose.
   Firstly, the severity of the traffic jams hasn't been studied systematically and objectively. The author fail to inform us how many commuters complains, if they overstate the problem so as to catch public attention and the traffic jams is in fact only occasional. It would be helpful to conduct a valid survey about the traffic situation of Blue Highway. If the traffic jams isn't too bad, only occasional because of the local sports meeting and won't be permanently, then it would serve to undermine the author's recommendation. On the other hand, if the traffic jams is really serious and won't be solved unless some concret actions are taken, then we can further discuss how to tackle the traffic jams.
   Secondly, the author is against the proposal offered by motorist's lobby merely because of the failure of Green Highway. However, without being provided any evidence that the two highway are essentially in the same situation, I am not convinced that adding an additional lane for traffic won't help, let alone deteriorating the problem. Besides, the author cites people's love for bicycle as evidence that adding a lane for bicycle will reduce the traffic. However, even it is truth that bicycles are popular enough amoung citizens, there is no evidence that people will love to go to work by bicycles, which is different concept compared with a hobby to go sighseeing by bicycles. Without these evidence, we cannot confidently reach the conclusion that residents will make use of the bicycle lane and thus reduce the rush-hour traffic. If, however, there is more evidence, such a survey, indicates that people would love to go to work by bike, then a bike lane could be a good choice.
   And lastly, we are not provided evidence that there is not other alternative methods to reduce the traffic jams. The traffic jams could be results of bad condition of roads, permenant demographic shifts or seasonly prosperously tourism. If either scenerio is the case, then it would be more realistic to establish another new highway to alleviate the traffic. However, the author's recommendation will be strenghten if there is not other better options.
   All in all, the author merely scratch the surface of the problem and hastily come to the recommendation of adding a bicycle lane. In order to better evaluate the recommendation, we should be provided more detail concerning about the rush-hour traffic, including if the traffic is really serious and if there are other factors besides the numbers of cars affecting the situation. And it would be also helpful to know whether the situation of Green Highway is essentially the same as that of Blue Highway, and residents willness to substitute bicycles for cars to be used as daily vehicles.
麻烦大侠们了，如果有小伙伴帮着看看，可以互批一下什么的