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Question

Difficulty: EasyEvaluating Plans, Strategies, and Useful Information

To reduce traffic congestion during peak hours, a city council plans to eliminate free on-street parking in the financial district and implement hourly parking fees. Council members claim this policy will encourage commuters to switch to public transit, thereby decreasing the total number of cars entering the area each morning. Which of the following would be most useful to evaluate in order to determine whether the city council's plan will succeed?

  1. Whether public transit lines serving the financial district currently have sufficient unused capacity during peak morning hours to accommodate additional passengers.Answer
  2. B
    Whether neighboring cities have previously increased municipal parking fees to fund public infrastructure projects.
  3. C
    Whether the revenue generated by the new hourly parking fees will exceed the initial cost of installing parking meters.
  4. D
    Whether commuters who switch to public transit will report higher levels of satisfaction with their daily travel times.
  5. E
    Whether reducing vehicle traffic in the financial district will also significantly lower carbon dioxide emissions in surrounding residential areas.

Answer

Whether public transit lines serving the financial district currently have sufficient unused capacity during peak morning hours to accommodate additional passengers.
The plan relies on a crucial assumption: that commuters discouraged by parking fees actually have the practical option to switch to public transit. Evaluating transit capacity tests this assumption directly. If transit is already at peak capacity, commuters cannot switch, negating the plan's intended mechanism.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Identify the plan and its explicit goal.
Plan: Eliminate free parking and charge hourly fees. Goal: Reduce traffic congestion by prompting commuters to switch to public transit.
Evaluating a plan requires focusing strictly on the link between the proposed mechanism and the intended goal.
2
Apply the Variance Test to evaluate the key assumption.
If transit has capacity: Drivers can switch, reducing congestion (plan succeeds). If transit lacks capacity: Drivers cannot switch, remaining in traffic or finding alternatives without reducing vehicle count effectively (plan fails).
Answering this question yields opposite outcomes for the success of the plan, proving its critical relevance.

Key Concept

Evaluating Plan Viability (Variance Test)
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Topics

Evaluating Plans, Strategies, and Useful Information

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