055 The following appeared in a Letter to the

[nagalakshmi_k]

Hi Sri,
Please give me your input with scoring. Thankyou.


55. ------------------------------

The following appeared in a Letter to the Editor of the Shady Village newspaper.

"Commuters are complaining that the rush hour traffic on Blue Highway between Shady Village and Bright City has doubled their commuting time. Some commuters have asked that an additional traffic lane be built, but the recent creation of such a lane on nearby Green Highway apparently attracted more commuters, judging from the fact that rush-hour traffic jams actually increased there this past winter. To reduce rush-hour traffic on Blue Highway, a bicycle lane should be added instead of a traffic lane. This approach will succeed because many citizens of Shady Village are avid bicyclists; 75 percent of respondents to a recent questionnaire distributed there said they would like to bicycle more hours per week than they currently do."

There are some real flaws in the letter sent to the editor of the Shady village news paper.

The idea of not building another lane on Blue Highway depending on the fact that Green Highway has a lot of traffic jams past winter is ridiculous. Obviously winter has nasty weather conditions such as snow, poor visibility, and slick roads. It is mentioned that Green Highway attracted more commuters after new lane was built, so, it might have added to the winter conditions to cause traffic jams. No data has given to compare the traffic of green highway and blue Highway, so, we can not say that another lane on Blue Highway also causes jams.

There is no information given about the commuters on Blue Highway such as number of commuters from Shady village to Bright City or vice versa. By the name of the city or village we can nto say that there is more number of commuters from village to city. If the number of commuters from bright city to shady vilage are far more than from shady village to bright city, building bicycle lane may not decrease the rush hour traffic. Here is another important factor which weakens the idea of building bicycle lane for only shady village commuters. If the increse in rush hour traffic is due to increse in commuters from another cities connecting these two cities, we may not at all decrese the rush hour traffic. Even the questionnaire responses of shady village are not reliable because there is no mention of number and type of citizens the questionnaire was given. If the questionnaire was given to a few and if they are not commuters between these two cities, the information is entirely useless.

Moreover we have to consider the distance between the two cities, for considering the bicycle lane which is not given. If the distance is more than 10miles, nobody wants to go by bicycle because it takes more time to ride bicycle than the automobile time including the complained time being wasted due to rush hour traffic. It is also not possible to ride a bicycle through all weather conditions.

So the idea of building bicycle lane rather than automobile lane would be convincing if data like distance between the cities, the contribution of Shady village commuters to the rush hour traffic, the poll of real commuters of shady village and their inclination of bicycle riding through all weather conditions.

[AmigoRo]

Nagalakshmi,

You have debunked most of the assertions made in the letter. I think you have presented a lot of reasonable counterpoints. You have controlled the elements of standard English quite successfully.

One big spelling mistake: "Increase" not "Increse"

According to Erin, we should NOT cast aspersions on the validity of questionnaires and surveys.

Your third paragraph is a bit jumbled up.

All in all, I like your essay.

Score: 5.0/6.0
Justification: A very good response with only minor typographical and structural errors.

AmigoRo

[nagalakshmi_k]

Hi AmigoRo,
Thanks for your feedback. From next time I will try to focus on critiquing on survey faults more. About that spelling mistakes, I did not proofread the essay. AmigoRO, I have one question. Pl, clarify it. I am not good at fast typing and when typing I am not good at thinking. I want to write essays on paper, but also I am afraid I might not be able to write on paper neat and tidy without any crossings and cuttings. Please help me on this issue. Thank you.

[AmigoRo]

Originally posted by nagalakshmi_k

Hi AmigoRo,
Thanks for your feedback. From next time I will try to focus on critiquing on survey faults more. About that spelling mistakes, I did not proofread the essay. AmigoRO, I have one question. Pl, clarify it. I am not good at fast typing and when typing I am not good at thinking. I want to write essays on paper, but also I am afraid I might not be able to write on paper neat and tidy without any crossings and cuttings. Please help me on this issue. Thank you.

Dear Nagalakshmi,

I made a HUGE mistake when posting the earlier comment. According to Erin, we should not question the surveys, questionnaires, research (done by third parties) etc.

Please please accept my most humble apologies for the mistake, and for giving you wrong directions.

AmigoRo

[Dev]

Tell me what's wrong.

The letter suggests a lane be built on Blue Highway for cyclists and argues that a traffic lane will not be suitable to reduce traffic congestion. An analysis of the premises presented is required to validate this claim.

Firstly, Shady Village and Bright City seem to be separated by a fairly long distance. This is inferred from the fact that, doubling of the commuting time has bothered commuters. If the distance were a drive of five minutes then it being extended to ten minutes will not be a big problem. Only if the drive took a considerable amount of time will its extension become a notable problem. If this is true, traveling by bicycle will not be a good choice. It will certainly add to the already existing delay.

Secondly, the majority of people in Shady Village may be athletes. Their sole purpose for cycling could be for sport. It could also be that most of them have become fitness conscious and therefore want to cycle more to remain fit (as the questionnaire suggests). Cycling in this present age is done more for fitness purposes than to commute between two places separated by a long distance.

The letter also discourages building of a new traffic lane by conveniently comparing it with Green Highway. The increase in the number of commuters is assumed from the fact that the number of traffic jams has increased. This is wrong because it could have increased due to other reasons. Since the rise has been observed in winter, it is possible that it was due to the increased snowfall this season. It could have resulted because of the repair works being undertaken this season. Without the exact reasons for the jams we cannot conclude on anything substantial. The writer should have specified which season and which year he is using for his comparison.

In order to strengthen his suggestion the writer has to prove that many people in Shady Village commute by bicycle and that they would prefer to shuttle between Shady Village and Bright City on their cycles. In order to prove his point about the new traffic lane he has to provide statistics comparing a few, preferably nearby and similar highways; showing that the lanes actually make things worse. Only by doing this will his stand hold good.

[nagalakshmi_k]

Hi AmogoRo,
You don't need to apologize. I got your point about surveys. Thanks.

[sandin]

The given passage is a recommendation made to the editor of the Shady Village newspaper. THe passage suggests that in order to reduce traffic on the Blue Highway a bicycle lane should be opened instead of traffic lane. The writer believes that the traffic lane will further increase the traffic instead of decreasing it. He cited the example of a traffic lane created on the nearby Green Highway where the rush hour traffic jams increased this winter. So the writer concludes that the construction of the new lane attracted more commuters because of which the traffic increased. Further in order to support his point of creation of a bicycle lane he mentioned that the Shady village has avid bicyclists because a recent questionnaire resulted that 75percent of the respondent would like to bicycle more hours per week than they currently do. A superficial glance at the argument may convince many readers, however an in depth analysis reveals that the argument is based on illogical reasoning and flawed evidences.

First the writer states the disadvantages of constructing the traffic lane by presenting the fact that the new traffic lane at Green Way sustained increased rush hour traffic jams. However this
evidence is unconvincing because the writer hypothetically assumed that the increase in jams was due to an increase in the number of commuters. There could be various other reasons
for these increased jams like the jams were due to the conditions such as snow which is quite common in winter. Also the data of just few days could not be relied to interpret that the whole
year observed an increased in jams. Therefore the writer should provide us with the data about the actual number of commuters in the Green Highway and the number of jams reported
throughout the year.

Second the evidence that the Shaddy village has avid bicyclists does not imply that these bicyclists actually use bicycle as a major means of conveyance. Therefore the writer should
provide us the information as to how many of these bicyclists actually use bicycle for means for transportation. Even if we assume that these bicyclists will use bicycles for their most of the
conveyance then too it is highly improbable that they would prefer to travel long distance with their cycles as Blue highway is the road linking the two cities therefore it would be far away from
the two cities and the major transportation medium would be vehicles only. The writer should have given us the data about the number of people actually using bicycles to travel through the
Blue Highway.

Moreover the assertion that the many citizens are avid bicyclist is based on dubious evidence. The fact that 75 percent respondents said to increase the bicycle for more hours than they
do now does nothing to bolster that many citizens are enthusiastic bicyclists as the writer did not provide us with the actual number of people participated in the questionnaire this data
remains dubious in its results. Because 75 percent of 10 is just 10 and 75 percent of 1000 is 750. Therefore the information about the number of people participated in the questionnaire is
required. Moreover the writer did not provide the link between the people's intention to do more cycling and the decrease of jams in the Highway. May be the people would increase cycling
but only for exercising purposes and during the morning hours and not in the rust hour time. Such an increase in the cycling hours would contribute nothing for waxing the jams during
rush hour traffic. So the write should have properly linked the increased cycling hours with its impact on reducing traffic.


To conclude the writers assertion that the bicycle lane would contribute more than traffic lane towards reducing the traffic jams seems flawed and unreasoned. The writer needs to consider
the above analysis and present the required information so as to present a conducing argument.