GMAT Reading Comprehension- Traditional Means of Reducing Traffic Congestion Promote Supply-Side Solutions

Reading Passage Question
Traditional means of reducing traffic congestion promote supply-side solutions: expanding the supply of roads and highways. However, recent attempts at traffic control have concentrated on the demand side by encouraging carpooling and mass transit through the use of tolls and parking fees. Even used together, these strategies are doomed to fail in the long run because of the high cost of supplementing the existing infrastructure and because of the difficulty of effecting lasting changes on people's driving habits. If a high-occupancy-vehicle lane is built, for example, commuters may be temporarily persuaded to carpool to avoid congestion, but as the amount of traffic in those lanes inevitably grows, the advantages of carpooling begin to diminish. Furthermore, as highways around our major cities continue to be expanded to relieve the problem, valuable land is used up, threatening to overrun those cities with a tangled web of concrete.

Luckily, technology has provided what may be at least a partial solution. In Hong Kong, Paris, and other cities, congestion pricing has been tried with encouraging results. Instead of charging a flat toll for road use, congestion pricing, which employs pre-purchased magnetic cards, charges higher per-mile rates for using crowded roads during peak hours. Since the strategy affects price, it is a demand-side policy, but its advantage is that it targets not just one segment of the driving public but all drivers using a particular road. Other demand-side strategies (such as staggered work hours and employer transportation rebates) tend mainly to affect commuters. Congestion pricing may also relieve the often interminable lines at toll booths during rush hours.

“Traditional means of reducing traffic congestion promote supply-side solutions”- is a GMAT reading comprehension passage with answers. Candidates need a strong knowledge of English GMAT reading comprehension.

This GMAT Reading Comprehension consists of 7 comprehension questions. The GMAT Reading Comprehension questions are designed for the purpose of testing candidates’ abilities in understanding, analyzing, and applying information or concepts. Candidates can actively prepare with the help of GMAT Reading Comprehension Practice Questions.

Solution and Explanation

Question 1
With which of the following statements would the author most likely agree?

1. Political obstacles to congestion pricing could be overcome if public anger at traffic congestion becomes strong enough and effective demand-side policies are implemented in a coherent manner.
2. A government campaign to encourage carpooling may extend the amount of time commuters are willing to carpool, but it would eventually become an unproductive policy if it conflicted with plans for mass-transit systems.
3.  Supply-side approaches to the problem of traffic congestion are not as likely to succeed as demand-side approaches that employ technology in order to affect the behavior of drivers more effectively.
4. The success of congestion pricing in Hong Kong and Paris ensures its success in the United States, as long as the systems implemented in the United States accurately duplicate the successful systems found in foreign countries.
5. Traffic congestion in highly populated urban areas is not a completely solvable problem, but supply-side strategies can go far in mitigating its worst effects.

Question 2
The author implies that one of the reasons traditional demand-side approaches to the problem of traffic congestion have not worked is that

1. the cost of building new infrastructure is prohibitively high when compared with other solutions
2. politicians are wary of policies that appear to raise taxes, even if those taxes are spent to maintain local roads and highways
3. government programs that attempt to manipulate social desires are unpopular with the public
4. inducing long-term changes in the transportation behavior of individuals is difficult
5. the escalating costs of damage to the transportation infrastructure have not been matched by adequate increases in tolls and other road taxes

Question 3
The primary purpose of the passage is to

1. explain the reasons for the worsening problem of traffic congestion
2. argue that the costs of transportation will almost certainly continue to climb, no matter what policies are instituted
3. blame local politicians for their lack of courage in facing the problems of traffic congestion
4. show how traditional theories of supply and demand can help solve many contemporary mass-transit dilemmas
5. consider some possible solutions to the problem of traffic congestion

Question 4
It can be inferred from the passage that a high-occupancy-vehicle lane

1. will ease traffic congestion for a while, allowing time for a more efficient system to be developed
2. will only contribute to carpool congestion
3. will be ineffective in changing people's driving habits in the long run
4. will unintentionally punish those drivers who do not contribute to traffic congestion
5. will persuade people to alter permanently their carpooling habits

Question 5
Which of the following, if true, would most weaken the author's assertion that congestion pricing may offer a solution to the problems of traffic congestion?

1. Traffic in Hong Kong and Paris is much worse than in any other part of the world.
2.  All of the cities where congestion pricing was implemented have similar traffic conditions.
3. In all the cities that attempted congestion pricing, there has also been a massive increase in the availability of convenient public transportation.
4. Pre-purchased magnetic cards while offering a feasible solution to traffic congestion will ultimately be rejected by the drivers of Europe as unwieldy and wasteful.
5. Drivers in congestion-pricing areas who are frequent road users have altered their driving times whenever possible, due in part to recently implemented staggered work hours.

Question 6
According to the passage, which of the following would NOT be representative of a demand-side transportation policy?

1. Atoll road through a congested city
2.  An increased parking fee in urban areas
3. Expanded roadways for high-occupancy vehicles

1. None
2. I only
3. II only
4. III only
5. II and III only

Question 7
The passage suggests that the author believes one disadvantage of a supply-side response to the problem of traffic congestion is that

1. even at current levels, the number of roads and highways has taken overland that could be put to better use
2. supply-side strategies are inherently more expensive than other strategies, which means there would need to be a steady tax stream with which to fund them
3. carpooling only works in the short term and does not address traffic other than commuter traffic
4. there are not enough funds to maintain the roads and highways already in existence
5. no matter how many new roads are built, demand will always be greater than supply

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