(英会話リスニングスクリプト)
Today there are about 500 million cars on
our planet.
Fifty years ago, the figure was 50 million.
By 2030, the number could be 1 billion,
plus an additional 500 million trucks and motorcycles.
Is this too many?
A lot of drivers don't think so.
They claim that cars improve the quality
of our lives.
They allow us to live outside large cities
and to take trips to isolated rural and mountain areas.
Due to stricter pollution controls, cars
are cleaner than ever.
So what are people complaining about?
The opponents of cars say that traffic congestion
and pollution are the important issues.
Building new roads is extremely expensive
and cleaning up the air is also expensive.
They say that it is unfair to expect the
taxes of non-drivers to pay for these things.
They say that public transportation should
be improved and that drivers should be encouraged to switch
to electric vehicles.
Countries should charge drivers to use roads.
However, some people say that these ideas
are impractical.
They say that most developed economies are
too dependent on the automobile industry to be able to discourage
the use of cars.
They also stress that car owners are voters
too; any plan to reduce the use of cars would lose a lot
of votes for any politician who said that he was going to
try it!
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