In order to solve traffic problems, governments should tax private car owners heavily and use the money to improve public transportation.What are the advantages and disadvantages of such a solution?

Comparing to the cost of the life in our society, nowadays the cars are not considered so expensive and this has brought a huge numbers of private cars on the streets. This is causing traffic problems in all the cities, bigger or smaller. Some governments are considering the solution of private cars taxation in order to decrease the use of the cars but we need to notice that this can be not the real solution to the problem.

Firstly we have to consider that taxation is almost always one of the instrument which can be used by the governments in order to reduce every kind of problem. For example in order to reduce the traffic due to the excessive number of cars, a taxation of the private owners can discourage the use of those. One of the advantage of this solution is also the funding of resources which can be used to invest in the public transportation. In fact, nowadays, with the current available technology, all the commuters would reach their work place using bus or train in a faster and cheaper way if a good service was provided by the cities. Furthermore, to pay less taxes, people could start to use other transportation way like bikes or car sharing and the number of used cars would decrease in a faster way.

On the other hand we have to consider that taxation could not be the best solution to avoid the traffic problem, especially if any better solutions are not provided. If the citizens have no alternative to the cars, no matter how heavy is the taxes, they will still use it. Therefore the governments has to supply alternatives to the use of private vehicles to really solve the traffic problem. Also, some people choice cannot be affected by a higher expenses in taxes if they feel really comfortable with their own transportation.

The traffic is a common issue in all the big cities around the world in developed or developing country. One of the solution which can be applied by the governments is the taxation of the private car owners. Whether it can be a valid solution or not, at least it can provide huge resources to improve the public transportation.