Open Letter about SLC transportation
Salt Lake City Department of Transportation
Dear Director Larsen,
I want to start this letter out by commending you on how decent traffic is these days. There have been so many days where my commute from Cottonwood Heights to East Central has been relatively smooth due to the clever programming of traffic lights and superb maintenance of I-215 and I-80. However, major improvement abounds by allocating our resources away from road expansion. When we compare our city’s forms of transportation to those of cities in Europe, Europe’s transportation models are much more efficient. The main reason for this is because car transportation isn’t prioritized in these European cities. Cars aren’t necessary because alternatives like walking, biking, and taking public transportation like buses and railway systems prove more benefit than cluttered, stressful, and expensive transportation via car. Sad fact is that we are forced to use the latter form of transportation, because we would be fired from our jobs or tardy from opportunity otherwise. In the article “Household Commute Times, Costs Highest in U.S. since 1980,” Ralph McLaughlin’s data analysis on commute times shows that commute time is still at a steady increase even though the percent of people commuting by vehicle is the lowest since 1980! The current band-aid solution of building more roads isn’t helping any of us. We get worse and worse commute times while we lose more and more money to roads, which has marked a lose-lose situation throughout the past greater part of a century and will continue doing so if we don’t make a change.
Multiple scholars and sources point to the issue of long transit times to other means, primarily that of urban and suburban sprawl, funding of temporary solutions in terms of infrastructure, and neglecting a centralized public transportation system which can expedite the transportation process. We love suburbs, and it shows by its increasing popularity through the past century, but we love them just like a child loves candy, an unhealthy habit. In the article “Why are America’s Suburbs Failing,” Brooke Masters identifies an ugly negative feedback loop that occurs with the repetitive process of always extending suburbs after identifying reasons of affordability and quality at the moment. This sounds great, but suburbs are disposable and abandoned to those of us with lower incomes are left with the issues dealing with the maintenance of the aging homes. It’s crazy to think how “a Los Angeles suburb that was home to a young George HW Bush in the 1940s… became an impoverished ghetto” (Masters)! Even though suburbs are the issue, we can build them in moderation just like candy can be eaten in moderation. Suburbs are desirable for us, so we should keep it that way instead of taking it away. In the source “The city and the state: American urban planning and the role of government,” Sandy Hornick shows how suburbs sprawl even in dying cities as long as there is availability of land that leads to low density development and funding and investment directed more to the suburbs. To solve this, Hornick proposes a profound solution, by clumping up suburbs through public projects. Even though this is for a different department of infrastructure, you as our representative leader can make a difference in this major factor through your position! In terms of transportation, the research article “Transportation Infrastructure and Eco-Environmental Quality: Evidence from China’s High-Speed Rail” by Lan-ye Wei and Liu Zhao shows how China’s high-speed rail boosts the efficiency of commutes and the economy greatly in general as they “reduce the waste of resources caused by mismatch between supply and demand.” This will clump the suburbs up with the points of interest being the stations of the high-speed railway system and our transportation will move on from the archaic century of cars.
In conclusion, taking money from expanding roads and putting it into projects like the high-speed rail have shown to be really effective for the many of us on commutes by making places worth staying in and thus maintaining, while our current solutions of focusing on cars just festers the issue of spacing things out away from the responsibility of social and infrastructural issues. We will be happier in our city as it transforms to those reminiscent cities of Europe, and our economy will go through the roof as we adopt the most efficient transportation there is!
Sincerely,
Nicholas
on the uploaded document.
0 General Document comments
0 Sentence and Paragraph comments
0 Image and Video comments
General Document Comments 0
You’ve asked for advice on how to anticipate counterarguments, and I’m here to help you with that. Let’s start by identifying if you’ve already used subordinate clauses in your writing, as they can be instrumental in addressing counterarguments.
In your text, I noticed the following sentence that incorporates a subordinate clause:
- “Even though suburbs are the issue, we can build them in moderation just like candy can be eaten in moderation.”
This sentence uses the subordinate clause “Even though suburbs are the issue,” which introduces a concession before presenting your main point. This is a great start in anticipating counterarguments.
To further improve your writing and better anticipate counterarguments, you can vary your sentence structure with more subordinate clauses. Here’s how you might incorporate them:
1. Introduce Potential Objections:
– Original: “The current band-aid solution of building more roads isn’t helping any of us.”
– Revised: “While some may argue that building more roads is necessary to reduce traffic, the current band-aid solution of building more roads isn’t helping any of us.”
2. Acknowledge and Refute Counterarguments:
– Original: “We get worse and worse commute times while we lose more and more money to roads, which has marked a lose-lose situation throughout the past greater part of a century and will continue doing so if we don’t make a change.”
– Revised: “Although proponents of road expansion believe it will alleviate traffic congestion, we get worse and worse commute times while we lose more and more money to roads, which has marked a lose-lose situation throughout the past greater part of a century and will continue doing so if we don’t make a change.”
3. Provide Evidence Against Counterpoints:
– Original: “In conclusion, taking money from expanding roads and putting it into projects like the high-speed rail have shown to be really effective for the many of us on commutes by making places worth staying in and thus maintaining, while our current solutions of focusing on cars just festers the issue of spacing things out away from the responsibility of social and infrastructural issues.”
– Revised: “In conclusion, although some may doubt the feasibility of reallocating funds from road expansion to high-speed rail projects, taking money from expanding roads and putting it into projects like the high-speed rail has shown to be really effective for the many of us on commutes by making places worth staying in and thus maintaining, while our current solutions of focusing on cars just festers the issue of spacing things out away from the responsibility of social and infrastructural issues.”
As your awareness of the use of complex sentences and the subordinate clause grows, you will start to recognize why some writing sounds better than others. When we look at an accomplished author’s writing, we begin to understand why using the subordinate clause is so effective. As you begin to notice these things when you read, you can replicate what great authors do when you write.
I encourage you to edit lines, sentences, and paragraphs in your text. If you are the owner of the document, you can double-click on any sentence or paragraph, edit and update.
By incorporating these strategies, you will effectively anticipate and address counterarguments, making your writing stronger and more persuasive. Remember, the question you posed was about how to anticipate counterarguments, and these techniques will help you do just that.
New Conversation
Hide Full Comment