Which of the following, if true, most logically completes the passage?
A recent poll found that over 80 percent of the residents of Nalmed Province favored a massive expansion of the commuter rail system as a means of significantly easing congestion on the province’s highways and were willing to help pay for the expansion through an increase in their taxes. Nevertheless, the poll results indicate that expansion of the rail system, if successfully completed, would be unlikely to achieve its goal of easing congestion, because _______.
A. most people in favor of expanding the rail system reported less congestion during their highway commute as the primary benefit they would experience
B. of the less than 20 percent of residents not counted as favoring the expansion, about half claimed to have no opinion one way or the other
C. the twice-daily periods of peak congestion caused by people commuting in cars have grown from about an hour each to almost two and a half hours each in the past 20 years
D. expanding the commuter rail system will require the construction of dozens of miles of new railbed
E. the proposed expansion to the commuter rail system will make it possible for some people who both live and work at suburban locations to commute by rail

Please provide your explanation
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Answer should be A




A. most people in favor of expanding the rail system reported less congestion during their highway commute as the primary benefit they would experience
implies that most people in favor of expanding the rail sysem do NOT want to/expect to use it => no reduction in congestion
B. of the less than 20 percent of residents not counted as favoring the expansion, about half claimed to have no opinion one way or the other
doesn't say anything useful
C. the twice-daily periods of peak congestion caused by people commuting in cars have grown from about an hour each to almost two and a half hours each in the past 20 years
doesn't say anything useful
D. expanding the commuter rail system will require the construction of dozens of miles of new railbed
doesn't say anything useful
E. the proposed expansion to the commuter rail system will make it possible for some people who both live and work at suburban locations to commute by rail
this says that more people will use the commute by rail, not that more people will be driving => this could potentially actually lead to a decrease in congestion.

IMO A.

If people are reporting that they are currently facing less congestion than there will be no benefit from the construction of the new railway line since the congestion is not a problem to begin with in the first place for these folks.

"A recent poll found that over 80 percent of the residents of Nalmed Province favored a massive expansion of the commuter rail system as a means of significantly easing congestion on the province’s highways and were willing to help pay for the expansion through an increase in their taxes."

A. most people in favor of expanding the rail system reported less congestion during their highway commute as the primary benefit they would experience.

A tells us that the people who FAVOR the commuter rail EXPECT to see less congestion as the primary benefit. The people ARE NOT reporting that they are currently experiencing less traffic. This would provide evidence that the plan IS likely to achieve it's goal.

E. the proposed expansion to the commuter rail system will make it possible for some people who both live and work at suburban locations to commute by rail

This increases the number of people using the system and therefore increasing congestion. The commuter rail systems would probably decrease traffic if only the Province residents were using it. But now the suburban residents who don't even work in Province will be using it thereby increasing the congestion.

Where are you getting that from.

80% of the residents are in favor of the rail system.

A says that most of the 80% of people who are in favor of the rail system expect to see shorter commute times as a benefit of the rail system.

Why would they not ride the train?

IMO

first i went for C but then a second look at the question gave me an idea that it is the poll result on which the conclusion is based and so we've to find an answer choice which gives an idea of what people reported in the poll and not what it is actually. hence A.

I can see you point.

A. most people in favor of expanding the rail system reported less congestion during their highway commute as the primary benefit they would experience

That means most of the 80% of people will still be on the highway. But most could be slightly over half. If slightly under half still take the rail wouldn't that result in a decrease of congestion?

Example 39% of the people take the rail.

I'm probably wrong I was just trying to test my logic.

80% of the people are in favor of the rail system to reduce congestion on the highway. The more people that take the train the less people there will be on the highway.

A states that most of the 80% expect to stay on the highway.

ex. 100 people. 80 say that they are in favor of the rail system but most of the 80 say they will stay on the highway. To me most could mean 41 or 79. If 41 people stay on the highway then 39 people will take the rail. That means now there could be 39 people on the rail and 61 on the highway. To me that would be a significant ease of congestion, almost 40%.

The problem where I think I am wrong is that it could be 79 people on the highway and only 1 on the rail. That wouldn't be a significant decrease in congestion.

I'm with E on this..

In my mind, A seems like the only logical choice.
I don't quite understand people's reasoning for E.
Would you guys mind elaborating more?

I'll expand on my initial post of why E is incorrect.

E. the proposed expansion to the commuter rail system will make it possible for some people who both live and work at suburban locations to commute by rail
This means that people who live and work at suburban locations -who, before the expanded commuter rail system, would have had to drive to work - can now commute by rail.
=> less people will be driving to work => less congestion in highways.

E in fact shows that the expanded system could and is likely to achieve its goal of decreased congestion on highways.