The following appeared in an editorial in a local newspaper. "Commuters complain that increased rush-hour traffic on Blue Highway between the suburbs and the city center has doubled their commuting time. The favored proposal of the motorists' lobby is to widen the highway, adding an additional lane of traffic. Opponents note that last year's addition of a lane to the nearby Green Highway was followed by a worsening of traffic jams on it. Their suggested alternative proposal is adding a bicycle lane to Blue Highway. Many area residents are keen bicyclists. A bicycle lane would encourage them to use bicycles to commute, it is argued, thereby reducing rush-hour traffic."
Write a response in which you discuss what questions would need to be answered in order to decide whether the recommendation and the argument on which it is based are reasonable. Be sure to explain how the answers to these questions would help to evaluate the recommendation.
The editorial does an astute job at listing the elementary components necessary to come to a resolution for traffic problems on Blue Highway. Unfortunately, the column fails to acknowledge the necessary questions that need to be answered before making an absolute decision. It is imperative that the motorists' lobby dig further into the facts and answer the neccessary detailed questions.
Rush-hour traffic has gained notoriety as being bad in the past, but Blue Highway's commuter time doubling is an aberration. How could it have gotten to this point? What do the demographics of the area look like? One can assume that population growth has rapidly increased; if growth has become rampant, a new freeway altogether may supplant as a better solution. What does the infrastructure in place already look like? If the city is growing at such an uncontrollable pace, it may be best to build a subway. Work is critical for the business ecosystem of any city, and a delayed commute takes away from that.
The motorists' lobby's first inclination to pacify the traffic is to expand the highway. At first, this may seem intuitive. After noting that a similar action was taken last year and traffic worsened, it is apparent that the problem needs to be examined on a more granular level. Why is the traffic so bad in the first place? Perhaps it isn't the sheer volume of commuters but rather the lack of exits that has caused these delays. Less exits can cause congestion which would disrupt the natural flow of Blue Highway's infrastructure. Further, why has widening the highway made traffic worse for the Green Highway? The public likely interpreted the press of a new highway lane as a more efficient way to work which led those who typically took other routes to work to switch to the Green Highway. Before alotting the resources to building out a new lane, it is pivotal that the lobbyists deduce the true meaning behind the initial traffic increase.
Adding a bike lane creates a simple, environmentally friendly solution which is sure to alleviate the budget of the tax payers. That being said, it is crucial to survey commuters and see how many may use their bikes to get to work. Many area residents may be avid cyclists, but riding a bike from the suburbs to the urban center could be miles long. Nobody wants to go to work enveterated and in a sweaty stupor. Since the bike lane has not been implemented before, it is a risk. Asking denizens who intends to use the bike lane to commute to work would illustrate the proper statistics necessary to make an informed decision.
Commuting time on the Blue Highway has become a daily nuisance for the working class; it needs to be fixed. The motorists' lobby makes assumptions that scratch the surface of what needs to be looked at. They are on the right track, but a more detailed observation is in order.
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 5, column 336, Rule ID: EN_CONTRACTION_SPELLING
Message: Possible spelling mistake found
Suggestion: isn't
...c so bad in the first place? Perhaps it isnt the sheer volume of commuters but rathe...
^^^^
Line 5, column 430, Rule ID: FEWER_LESS[2]
Message: Did you mean 'fewer'? The noun exits is countable.
Suggestion: Fewer
... of exits that has caused these delays. Less exits can cause congestion which would ...
^^^^
Line 7, column 192, Rule ID: MANY_NN_U[1]
Message: Possible agreement error. The noun may seems to be uncountable; consider using: 'much may', 'a good deal of may'.
Suggestion: much may; a good deal of may
...crucial to survey commuters and see how many may use their bikes to get to work. Many ar...
^^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
but, first, if, look, may, so, in the first place
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 24.0 19.6327345309 122% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 12.0 12.9520958084 93% => OK
Conjunction : 9.0 11.1786427146 81% => OK
Relative clauses : 15.0 13.6137724551 110% => OK
Pronoun: 25.0 28.8173652695 87% => OK
Preposition: 61.0 55.5748502994 110% => OK
Nominalization: 9.0 16.3942115768 55% => More nominalizations (nouns with a suffix like: tion ment ence ance) wanted.
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2372.0 2260.96107784 105% => OK
No of words: 493.0 441.139720559 112% => OK
Chars per words: 4.81135902637 5.12650576532 94% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.71206996034 4.56307096286 103% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.65837423574 2.78398813304 95% => OK
Unique words: 267.0 204.123752495 131% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.541582150101 0.468620217663 116% => OK
syllable_count: 749.7 705.55239521 106% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.5 1.59920159681 94% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 10.0 4.96107784431 202% => Less pronouns wanted as sentence beginning.
Interrogative: 5.0 0.471057884232 1061% => Less interrogative sentences wanted.
Article: 6.0 8.76447105788 68% => OK
Subordination: 5.0 2.70958083832 185% => OK
Conjunction: 4.0 1.67365269461 239% => Less conjunction wanted as sentence beginning.
Preposition: 4.0 4.22255489022 95% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 28.0 19.7664670659 142% => OK
Sentence length: 17.0 22.8473053892 74% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively short.
Sentence length SD: 38.3853148738 57.8364921388 66% => OK
Chars per sentence: 84.7142857143 119.503703932 71% => OK
Words per sentence: 17.6071428571 23.324526521 75% => OK
Discourse Markers: 1.75 5.70786347227 31% => More transition words/phrases wanted.
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 3.0 5.25449101796 57% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 12.0 8.20758483034 146% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 9.0 6.88822355289 131% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 7.0 4.67664670659 150% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.209382440696 0.218282227539 96% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0525675081954 0.0743258471296 71% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0645394117935 0.0701772020484 92% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.116490740099 0.128457276422 91% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0266441008828 0.0628817314937 42% => Paragraphs are similar to each other. Some content may get duplicated or it is not exactly right on the topic.
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 10.0 14.3799401198 70% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 62.68 48.3550499002 130% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 7.1628742515 43% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 8.7 12.197005988 71% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 10.32 12.5979740519 82% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.68 8.32208582834 104% => OK
difficult_words: 131.0 98.500998004 133% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 8.0 12.3882235529 65% => OK
gunning_fog: 8.8 11.1389221557 79% => OK
text_standard: 9.0 11.9071856287 76% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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Rates: 66.67 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 4.0 Out of 6 -- The score is based on the average performance of 20,000 argument essays. This e-grader is not smart enough to check on arguments.
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Note: the e-grader does NOT examine the meaning of words and ideas. VIP users will receive further evaluations by advanced module of e-grader and human graders.