People Cities Traffic Cars Carpool Fewer Roads Mass

Large U.S. cities have many traffic jams, especially during "rush hour," when there are more cars than usual on the road because people are driving to and from work. Some cities are trying to "address" (find solutions for) these problems by building more and bigger roads, but this is expensive. Other cities are trying to "reduce" (decrease) traffic by using toll roads, carpool lanes, and/or mass transit.

"Toll roads" are roads where drivers must pay a "toll" (an amount of money paid to do something) to drive on them. These tolls may be a few dollars, so poorer drivers often decide to use a different road. This means that there are fewer cars on the toll roads, and therefore fewer traffic jams.

Some cities want people to "carpool," or share their cars with other people who are going to the same place. In these cities, people who carpool by having a certain number of people in their car are allowed to use "carpool lanes." Because few people carpool, the carpool lanes have fewer cars than the regular lanes do, so there are fewer traffic jams and these people can drive more quickly. Cars that use the carpool lanes without having enough people in the car can be stopped by the police and forced to pay a "fine" (an amount of money paid as a punishment).

Finally, other cities are trying to improve their "mass transit" systems of busses, trains, and subways that move people around a city. Most U.S. cities do not have good mass transit systems. People have to wait a long time for busses, and busses go to only a few places in a city. But cities are trying to find the money to make their mass transit systems better.