Đề thi thử tốt nghiệp THPT 2027 môn Tiếng Anh — Đề ôn luyện số 24

Traffic jams are more than a daily annoyance. They waste time and fuel, pollute the air and slow down the buses and delivery vans that a city depends on. In many large cities, the average driver now spends dozens of hours a year stuck in traffic. For decades, the usual response was to build more roads. Yet new roads often fill up with cars within a few years, as people who once avoided driving decide to take the car after all. This has led many economists to support a different approach: making drivers pay to use the busiest streets at the busiest times.

The idea is known as congestion pricing, or a congestion charge. Its logic is simple. A driver who enters a crowded city centre slows down everyone else but does not pay for the delay he or she causes. A charge puts a price on that cost, encouraging people to travel at another time, take public transport or combine several trips into one. Singapore became the first city to introduce such a scheme in 1975, when drivers had to buy a paper licence to enter the city centre during the morning rush hour. London followed in 2003 with a daily fee for driving into its central zone, and traffic there fell noticeably in the first few years. Since then, several other European cities, including Milan and Gothenburg, have introduced schemes of their own.

Perhaps the most closely studied case is Stockholm. [I] In 2006, the Swedish capital tested a charge for seven months, even though most residents opposed the idea at the start. [II] During the trial, traffic crossing the charging zone fell by around a fifth, queues became shorter and the air in the city centre became cleaner. [III] These improvements were visible to everyone, and by the end of the trial public opinion had shifted. [IV] In a referendum held later that year, a majority of the city's voters chose to keep the charge, which became permanent in 2007.

Despite such results, congestion pricing remains controversial. Critics argue that a flat fee is unfair to poorer drivers, since the same amount takes a larger share of a small income. Others worry that shops inside the zone will lose customers. Supporters reply that in many large cities most people who travel into the centre already use public transport, and that the money raised can be spent on better buses and trains. In January 2025, New York became the first city in the United States to introduce such a charge, and planners around the world are watching closely. Whether they follow its example may depend less on economics than on whether voters can be persuaded that the benefits are worth the cost.