With the rapid development of urbanization and ever-increasing population, it is not uncommon to see that the streets of a majority of metropolises, such as Beijing and New York, are teeming with thousands of vehicles of all kinds. Unfortunately, traffic jams inevitably ensue, which will incur other problems. This essay, therefore, will firstly illustrate some of those problems, namely, delay in travel time, economic losses and medical risks. The second part will offer several feasible solutions to the traffic congestion issue, which are carpooling, establishing an intelligent traffic control system and raise taxes.

In the first place, it can be argued that a series of problems can be incurred by high traffic congestion levels. To begin with, traffic jams, arguably, will give rise to increased travel time. Taking China for example, Yang et al. (2011) indicated that traffic congestion, in China, was a serious “urban illness” problem, which had resulted in delays in travel time. Accordingly, the economic efficiency of the whole city is understood to be affected to some extent. Secondly, traffic congestion is responsible for bringing about a large number of economic losses for individuals as well as the waste of oil resources. Generally speaking, the continuous stop and start driving in traffic jams will burn more fuel than smooth driving on an open highway. As a result, extra money will be spent on fuels. Just as Du and Zheng (2012) pointed out that traffic jams could result in tremendous economic losses and waste of fuel resources. In addition, another issue is that high traffic congestion levels may cause significant medical risks. Encountering traffic jams will probably be a severe problem during transferring or picking up a patient to an emergency medical procedure. Carnall (1996) argued that traffic congestion, around the hospital sites, would delay