The heavy traffic in Masana is a growing drain on the city's economy—the clogging of the streets of the central business district alone cost the economy more than $1.2 billion over the past year. In order to address this problem, officials plan to introduce congestion pricing, by which drivers would pay to enter the city's most heavily trafficked areas during the busiest times of the day. Which of the following, if true, would most strongly indicate that the plan will be a success? (A) Approximately one-fifth of the vehicles in the central business district are in transit from one side of the city to the other . (B) Planners expect that, without congestion pricing, traffic in Masana is likely to grow by 6 percent in the next five years . (C) In other urban areas, congestion pricing has strongly encouraged carpooling (sharing of rides by private commuters). (D) Several studies have shown that a reduction in traffic of 15 percent in Masana could result in 5,500 or more new jobs. (E) Over 30 percent of the vehicles in the city's center are occupied by more than one person Evaluation of a Plan Situation Traffic congestion in Masana has been harming the city's economy. To address the problem, officials plan to make drivers pay to enter the city's most heavily trafficked areas during the busiest times of day. Reasoning What would most strongly suggest that the plan will reduce the harm to Masana's economy from traffic congestion? In order to succeed, the plan will have to be implemented and effectively enforced. Furthermore, the prices drivers pay will have to be high enough to significantly change their behavior in ways that reduce the amount of traffic congestion in the city. Finally, the economic benefits from the reduced traffic congestion will have to substantially outweigh any economically damaging side effects of the congestion pricing. Any evidence that any of these conditions will hold would provide at least some support for the prediction that the plan will succeed. (A) This provides no evidence that the congestion pricing would affect the behavior of either the one-fifth of drivers whose vehicles traverse the city or of the other four-fifths of drivers, nor does it give any evidence that the plan would produce overriding economic benefits. (B) This indicates that the traffic problem will grow worse if the plan is not implemented, but it does not provide any evidence that the plan will help address the problem. (C) Correct . This indicates that similar plans have successfully changed drivers' behavior in other cities in a way likely to reduce the number of cars on the road in heavily trafficked areas at busy times of day without producing harmful economic side effects. Thus, it provides evidence that the strategy could also be successful in Masana. (D) Although this suggests that reducing traffic congestion would be economically beneficial, it doesn't provide any evidence that the plan will succeed in reducing traffic congestion. (E) This suggests that many drivers in the city center are already carpooling, which, if anything, indicates that the plan will be less able to further affect those drivers' behavior and thus could be less effective than it might otherwise be. Masana's Traffic Step 1: Identify the Question The question asks for the answer that would indicate that the plan will be a success, so this is a Strengthen the Argument question. Step 2: Deconstruct the Argument Traffic hurts econ →cost =1.2B Plan: congestion pricing Step 3: Pause and State the Goal On Strengthen questions, the goal is to find an answer that makes the conclusion more likely. In this problem, look for a reason that congestion pricing will be more likely to address the traffic congestion and associated economic issues in Masana. Step 4: Work from Wrong to Right (A) Based on this answer 20% of drivers are going across the city, and 80% are driving for other purposes. There is no clear relationship between this information and the effectiveness of congestion pricing (i.e. are drivers traversing the city more or less likely to not drive if congestion pricing is implemented?). (B) The argument establishes that traffic is already a problem. This answer suggests that this problem is likely to get worse in the next five years, but this information does not help evaluate whether congestion pricing will help . (C) CORRECT . This answer states that congestion pricing was effective in reducing traffic in other cities because commuters carpooled, reducing the number of cars on the road. Knowing that a plan worked in a similar situation supports the idea that the plan might have its intended effect in Masana. (D) This answers links the traffic issues to economic issues, stating that there is information that a reduction in traffic could benefit the economy through the creation of jobs. It does not, however, address whether the specific plan of implementing congestion pricing would result in reduced traffic . (E) If anything, this answer weakens the argument because it suggests that additional carpooling (encouraging carpooling is one way that congestion pricing might reduce traffic) may not be feasible in Masana because many cars already contain multiple passengers.

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The heavy traffic in Masana is a growing drain on the city's economy

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mollyweasley

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GMATNinja ChiranjeevSingh please correct where i'm wrong - the objective is to reduce the negative impact of traffic on the economy, correct? not just to reduce traffic congestion?
so if folks are travelling through the CBD and paying the congestion fee (somewhat option A), doesn't that reduce the burden on the economy, irrespective of whether it reduces traffic or not?

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mollyweasley

Two things here:
1) Yes, the objective is to help the economy, but the argument is still specifically about reducing the negative impact of traffic on the economy. So an answer that simply says money will be made, without a clear indication of traffic reduction, cannot be a strengthener. We have to see the argument working as proposed.
2) We don't care *where* the cars are coming from, just whether the fee will reduce traffic. Whether the cars are going across town, or parking in the congested area, or just circling for fun, the streets are crowing regardless. (A) doesn't tell us anything to indicate whether traffic will be reduced by the measure, so it can't be a strengthener. And if we were just looking for additional revenue, it wouldn't tell us anything about that, either. We already know the streets are crowded with cars, so there is revenue to be had. Knowing that the cars are going across town doesn't make it any clearer that the revenue will be substantial.

Inesgcruz

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Hi,
When resolving this question I had trouble identifying the true goal of the plan. Is the problem the high traffic or how much this affects the city's economy?
Although I have now seen on the comments that the answer would be the first option, I still don't get how one could know that for sure based on the question alone.
I ended up choosing D as this option would reduce the economic impact that traffic represents.

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Inesgcruz

Hi,

When solving this question I had trouble identifying the true goal of the plan. Is the problem the high traffic or how much this affects the city's economy?

Although I have now seen on the comments that the answer would be the first option, I still don't get how one could know that for sure based on the question alone.

I ended up choosing D as this option would reduce the economic impact that traffic represents.

Is the goal of the plan to reduce traffic or to help the economy? Well, it's both: the officials want to help the economy BY reducing traffic.

You're partially right about (D): yes, IF we can add 5,500 jobs, that certainly would help the city's economy and thus make the officials happy.

But that's only IF we can add those jobs. If the officials' plan FAILS to reduce traffic, then (D) doesn't do the economy or the officials any good.

In other words, (D) doesn't give us any reason to believe that the officials' PLAN will actually reduce traffic, which means that (D) doesn't give us any reason to believe that the plan will actually help the economy.

I hope that helps!

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