12. How to Solve the Problem of Heavy Traffic

　　Nowadays, Chinas cities are getting increasingly crowded. The rapid increase in population is being made worse by the steady influx of people from the rural areas seeking employment. As a result, heavy traffic is a big headache, with all the roads packed with cars, bicycles and pedestrians.

　　In my opinion, there are two ways to solve the problem. One is to build more and wider roads to make the public highways less crowded and speed up the flow of traffic. The other is to expand the number of public bus routes, so that more people can be transported and fewer people will have to travel by car or bicycle.

　　However, each of these solutions brings problems with it. The former may occupy too much land that could be used for farms or houses; the latter may cause inconvenience for long periods in bus lines. I think the best answer to the problem of heavy traffic is a combination of the two: build more roads in places where land is less useful, and at the same time increase the number of public bus routes.