Question

Passage A
For decades, urban planners and civil engineers have attempted to alleviate persistent traffic congestion by widening highways and constructing new suburban bypasses. However, this traditional approach consistently fails to provide long-term relief due to a well-documented behavioral phenomenon known as induced demand. When road capacity is artificially increased, the immediate reduction in travel times temporarily makes driving a highly attractive option. This convenience encourages commuters who previously utilized public transit, participated in carpools, or deliberately traveled during off-peak hours to abandon those alternatives and drive during rush hour. Furthermore, over the long term, expanded highways encourage sprawling suburban development, which bakes car dependency into the regional architecture. Within just a few years, the expensive new lanes fill up entirely with this newly generated traffic, and congestion reliably returns to its previous agonizing levels. Because the fundamental behavior of commuters quickly adapts to consume whatever physical space is provided, attempting to simply build our way out of traffic congestion is ultimately a futile and wasteful endeavor. Instead of continuously pouring limited public funds into continuous highway expansion, municipalities must recognize the limits of concrete and asphalt. Planners should instead prioritize the funding and development of robust, accessible, and efficient public transportation networks, which represent the only sustainable method to genuinely address modern urban mobility challenges.

Passage B
Traffic congestion is fundamentally an economic problem, representing a classic tragedy of the commons rather than a mere engineering deficiency. Many frustrated motorists incorrectly assume that chronic gridlock is simply the result of inadequate infrastructure and passionately demand that governments construct wider freeways. Yet, simply adding lanes rarely resolves the issue because roadways are typically treated as a free public resource. Basic economic principles dictate that when a valuable resource is provided at no direct cost to the consumer, it will inevitably be overused until the indirect costs—in this case, the immense amount of time lost sitting in daily gridlock—equal the benefit of the trip. When a highway is widened, the indirect cost of time drops, immediately spurring additional drivers to use the road until it becomes just as congested as it was before the expansion. However, this does not mean that infrastructure expansion is inherently flawed or useless. Rather, it means that capacity improvements must be paired with rational economic policies, specifically dynamic congestion tolling. By implementing variable pricing that charges drivers a fee to use roads during peak travel times, cities can effectively manage and distribute demand. When properly priced, a wider highway can successfully accommodate a growing metropolitan population without inevitably reverting to a state of complete paralysis.

Which one of the following most accurately expresses the main point shared by both passages?