The town of Canterbury

The map below is of the town of Canterbury.

A new school (S) is planned for the area.

The map shows two possible sites for the school.

Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant.

The map shows two potential locations (S1 and S2) for a new school in a town
called Canterbury.

Overall, the main difference between the proposed sites is that S1 lies in the
countryside just to the east of the town, while S2 is in the heart of the city.

S1 is the only location which can be accessed by a main road.

S2 has the advantage of being surrounded by housing and hence conveniently situated for a potentially large number of pupils.

S1, in contrast, lies outside the housing area.

Neither site can offer the advantage of the University site, which is within easy reach of the town and also borders on the countryside.

There are main roads from Sturry and Chartham to Canterbury town centre, however there is a central no traffic zone, which is safer for pupils but also makes it impossible to reach S2 by car.

The town of Sturry is only 5 kilometres from S1 along a main road.

S2 is more conveniently sited for the population of the smaller town of Chartham and is again accessible by a main road.

The rising levels of congestion and air pollution found in most of the world's cities can be attributed directly to the rapidly increasing number of private cars in use.

In order to reverse this decline in the quality of life in cities, attempts must be made to encourage people to use their cars less and public transport more.

model answer:

Anyone who lives in a city is aware of the increasing number of cars on the road and the kinds of problems this creates: traffic jams, air pollution and longer commuting periods.

As economies grow and access to cars spreads to increasing numbers of people, this trend is likely to worsen.

The solution, it would seem, is for government to encourage the use of public transport in urban areas, thus decreasing dependence on the car.

One way to stimulate public transport use is to make private car use more expensive and inconvenient.

The introduction of tolls along urban motorways has been successfully employed in many cities.

Other such measures are high-priced permits for parking in urban areas and the restriction of parking to a limited number of cars.

Faced with high costs or no place to park, commuters would perhaps be more willing to abandon their cars in favour of buses or trains.

There are also less punishing ways of spurring public transport use.

The construction of free carparks at suburban train stations has proven successful in quite a number of countries.

This allows commuters to drive part of the way, but take public transport into the central, most congested, urban areas.

Indeed, making public transport more comfortable and convenient should work to attract more commuters and decrease traffic congestion.

Public transport that is convenient and comfortable retains its passengers, much like any business that satisfies its customers.

The more commuters committed to taking public transport, the less congestion on city streets.