Critical Review Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

Critical Review - Essay Example In general, there is a strong relationship between the oil prices in the world market and the number of registered vehicles in each country (Kenworthy). Basically, when oil prices in the world market suddenly increases, the urban transport systems within the U.S. will be negatively affected. To avoid sudden disruption in the U.S. transport system, the U.S. government is being challenged to promote the efficiency with the excessive consumption of crude oil on vehicles. Aiming to solve the vehicle problem related to energy wastage, air pollution and traffic congestion, a list of recommended strategies that can reduce the U.S.’s automobile dependence will be thoroughly discussed. There is a strong relationship between the high cost of maintaining private vehicles and the use of public transportation. (Kenworthy and Laube) Since the U.S. urban cities consume a large volume of gasoline for transportation use as compared to other developed countries like Canada and Europe (Kenworthy; Kenworthy and Laube; Khisty and Ayvalik), government internvention is necessary to effectively control the number of private and public transportation that travels around the city each day. As recently proposed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, there should be a US$0.50 cents increase in transportation sales taxes in order to solve the problem related to highway congestion (McGreevy and Vogel). Aside from increasing sales tax from the costs of public transportation, there was also a plan to increase the state excise tax on the sales of gasoline (Riphagen). Because of the added tax on gasoline, more people with private vehicles would eventually consider the use of public transportation like AC Transit or BART. On top of increasing the costs of gasoline through excise tax, increasing the number of metered parking places throughout each state is another way to encourage the people to reconsider taking the public transportation, the use of bicycle, and/or walking (De Turenne;