"Traffic here in Waymarsh is becoming a problem. Although just three years ago a state traffic survey showed that the typical driving commuter took 20 minutes to get to work, the commute now takes closer to 40 minutes, according to the survey just complet

The letter written to the editor of the Waymarsh Times makes an argument that a traffic policy similar to that implemented in Garville last year should be introduced to alleviate the traffic jam. This argument, however, rests upon certain additional unstated assumptions, which, should they prove unfounded, and upon lack of evidence, which, should it not be robust enough or proffered, may altogether critically weaken the final conclusion. Therefore, this argument must be comprehensively assayed before any clear-cut decision on the basis of the cited suggestions in the letter is ever made.

First and foremost, the validity of the survey recently completed pertinent to the traffic Waymarsh should receive certain amount of doubtfulness. That is, a want of more specific information about the survey, such as the number of respondents surveyed or the contingencies when the survey was conducted, can potentially invalidate the argument made by the editor in the letter. For example, the editor assumes that a change of commute time from twenty minutes to forty minutes is equivalent to a traffic problem. However, such assertion fails to inform readers of the other variables that might color the increase in commute time. To wit, the traffic state in today’s Waymarsh might differ from that in Waymarsh three years ago. For instance, the Waymarsh city itself may have exponentially expanded to an extent that the denizens find themselves spending more time commuting. It might be plausible that the work offices and the manufacturing factories that used to occupy the hub of the city have been re-located to the outskirts of the city, a condition that might feed into the increased commute time. Without such evidence to corroborate the claim made in the letter, it appears rather injudicious and cursory to make the case that Waymarsh has a traffic issue.

The second piece of evidence that needs to be in order lies in the comparability of the financial state in both Waymarsh and Garville. To be more specific, the faulty analogy is blatantly relevant here. Granted, the policy that financially rewards those who engage in carpooling has been hailed a resounding success in Garville, one attendant result of which, according to the residents in Garville, is that the commuting time has been reported to have fallen dramatically due to the coupons for free gas given. However, we don’t know if Waymarsh is financially robust to administer coupons for free gas. Providing free gas might be financially taxing and onerous to Waymarsh’s economy. Therefore, there would be no discrimination between implementing carpooling or rebuilding the roads, as suggested by the town council, in that either of them would sap the Waymarsh’s economic robustness. Another exemplar is that roads in Waymarsh might be narrow, replete with holes and cracks, with poor infrastructure and broken sign posts whereas Garville witnesses a perfect road condition. More pieces of evidence are found wanting. Information such as demographics of the two cities, the geographical contours of the two cities, and the like, should be proffered for apt comparison and for the expected results to transpire in Waymarsh.

The last fallacy underlying the editor of the Waymarsh Times lies in the un-specificity of the indicated waning pollution level in Garville. The editor clearly fails to pinpoint what kind of pollution that is found to be decreasing. It could be the case that the decreased pollution stems from a controlled water pollution. Such would subvert the claim made in the letter since a lessening of water pollution would have little, if not none, coloration on the air pollution or any traffic-related problem. The causal relation here therefore becomes pretty flimsy and attenuated. Only by conspicuously pointing out what kind of pollution is at issue will the author’s argument become strengthened.

At first blush, the argument, which suggests a sanguine solution to the traffic problem in Waymarsh, made by the editor of the Waymarsh Times seems ostensibly rational; however, upon closer scrutiny, we can readily pinpoint several pieces of evidence that are missing or that are left un-wrestled with in order to make his argument more valid. The author could fortify his argument by providing more relevant details regarding the today’s and the past’s traffic and city conditions in Waymarsh. Besides, the author’s argument could benefit from delving into a thorough discussion of Garville’s carpooling policy and from discussing whether such policy could equally generate salubrious effects in Waymarsh. Last, the author should concretize the observed decreased pollution in Garville since the wording of ‘pollution’ itself is quite ambiguous before the main claim about adopting a similar policy like Garville’s is put forth.