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If a city implements a congestion tax, it inevitably sees a reduction in daytime traffic volume. Any city that sees a reduction in daytime traffic volume experiences a decline in retail revenue for downtown merchants unless the city concurrently expands its public transit network. Most cities that implement a congestion tax also increase their parking fees. Currently, the city of Oakhaven has implemented a congestion tax, but has not expanded its public transit network.

Based on the information above, which of the following statements must be true? (Select all that apply)

  1. Any city that implements a congestion tax but does not expand its public transit network experiences a decline in retail revenue for downtown merchants.Answer
  2. Oakhaven is experiencing a decline in retail revenue for downtown merchants.Answer
  3. C
    Oakhaven has increased its parking fees.
  4. D
    Any city that experiences a reduction in daytime traffic volume has implemented a congestion tax.
  5. E
    Any city that expands its public transit network will not experience a decline in retail revenue for downtown merchants.

Answer

The logically proven statements are that Oakhaven is experiencing a decline in retail revenue for downtown merchants, and that any city implementing a congestion tax without expanding transit experiences such a decline.
The correct statements can be logically proven by chaining the conditional premises. First, implementing a congestion tax guarantees a reduction in daytime traffic. Second, a reduction in traffic guarantees a decline in retail revenue unless public transit is expanded (meaning if transit is NOT expanded, revenue declines). Connecting these facts means any city with a congestion tax and no transit expansion must see a retail revenue decline. This proves the general rule correct. Furthermore, because the stimulus establishes that Oakhaven has a congestion tax and no transit expansion, it necessarily proves that Oakhaven experiences a decline in retail revenue.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Diagram the conditional statements presented in the stimulus.
Tax -> Traffic Reduction. Traffic Reduction -> (Revenue Decline OR Transit Expansion). Tax -most-> Fee Increase.
Visualizing the formal logic chains is necessary to accurately identify valid deductions.
2
Chain the conditional statements together.
Because Tax -> Traffic Reduction, we can substitute 'Tax' into the second statement: Tax -> (Revenue Decline OR Transit Expansion). This means if a city has a Tax but NO Transit Expansion, it MUST have a Revenue Decline.
The transitive property of formal logic allows linking related conditional premises to form broader general rules.
3
Apply the established logical rules to the specific case of Oakhaven.
Oakhaven has a Tax and has NO Transit Expansion. Therefore, based on the chain established in Step 2, Oakhaven MUST experience a Revenue Decline.
Applying a valid general rule to a specific instance that meets its sufficient conditions guarantees the outcome.

Key Concept

Chaining conditional logic and evaluating instances that meet sufficient conditions.
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