Traffic Congestion

Primarily, there are simply too many vehicles for roads that were laid out decades ago, when far fewer people owned a car or a motorbike. On top of that, most jobs and schools start at the same hour, so everybody pours onto the streets at once. Poor planning plays a part as well — when housing is built far from offices and public transport doesn't connect the two, people have little choice but to drive.

I doubt it can be solved outright, but it can certainly be eased. The most effective step is giving people a real alternative to driving, meaning buses and trains that are frequent, clean and reliable. Staggering working hours would also spread the load, and so would allowing more people to work from home a couple of days a week. Building wider roads, by contrast, tends to help only briefly, because the extra space soon fills with extra cars.

It can go a long way, provided it's done properly. In cities with a dense metro network, plenty of people don't bother owning a car at all, which takes thousands of vehicles off the road. The trouble comes when the system is patchy — if the nearest station is a twenty-minute walk away and the last bus leaves at nine, people will carry on driving. So public transport does help, but only when using it is easier than the alternative.

A bus, I think, although neither is much fun. In a car you're comfortable, but you're also the one who has to stay alert and keep inching forward, which is tiring. On a bus somebody else deals with that, so I can read, answer messages or just look out of the window. There's also something reassuring about being stuck alongside forty other people in the same situation.