Will there be fewer cars in the future?

In this independent essay for the TOEFL iBT, the writer has to agree or disagree with the statement: In twenty years, there will be fewer cars in use than there are today.

by David Sanchez Redondo
TOEFL Preparation Class

In my point of view there will be fewer cars due to two reasons. First, people will use more public transportation, or we will use more bikes or other kinds of transportation. The other reason is we will run out of oil.

Let’s start with the first reason. Most people, especially in big cities, would say that buying a car is their last option. It is expensive and there are a lot of traffic jams. This change will be noticed less in small cities obviously because there is not a good system of transportation like in big cities. Another reason that there will be fewer cars is the fact that people will use more bikes. It is a good option as long as the cities are adapted for this. London and Amsterdam are good examples of such cities. I think they are the cities of the future, and many cities look up to them. In any case, the more people take care of themselves, the more they will accept this idea.

The other reason is the limited amount of crude oil. It is well-known that someday we will run out of oil.  No doubt that when technology keeps advancing quickly, many things will be affected; one of them is cars. Realizing the fact that twenty years is not far from now (we won’t have cars flying around the cities yet).  Nevertheless, there will be an important change in this industry. Hybrids or electrics will be the cars of the future. However, because all of them will be expensive, families will only be the ones who can afford them, and each family will only be able to buy one car.

In conclusion, imagining cities with fewer cars in the next twenty years is utopist, but we do not have to lose hope. Instead, we can keep visualizing that having three or four cars for every family will indeed disappear for a better, cleaner world.