Transit subsidy advocates argue that implementing their proposed fare-reduction initiative is the only viable method for mitigating our city's severe traffic congestion. Their argument rests on the premise that unless a municipal policy substantially reduces the direct financial burden of public transportation on commuters, those commuters will invariably continue to rely on their private vehicles. This reasoning, however, is fundamentally flawed. Consider the neighboring municipality of Oakhaven: last year, Oakhaven actually doubled its public transit fares, but by simultaneously implementing a massive overhaul of train frequency and route reliability, the city experienced a thirty percent decrease in private vehicle usage and a corresponding drop in traffic congestion.
The statement concerning the neighboring municipality of Oakhaven plays which one of the following roles in the argument?
- It presents a specific historical case demonstrating that a condition posited by the advocates as necessary for commuters to abandon private vehicles is not actually required.Answer
- BIt attempts to undermine the advocates' argument by showing that they have confused a condition that is sufficient for altering commuter behavior with one that is necessary for doing so.
- CIt acts as an intermediate conclusion used to support the broader claim that improving the frequency and reliability of public transportation is a superior policy to lowering its cost.
- DIt provides empirical evidence to suggest that an increase in the direct financial burden of public transportation directly causes a reduction in traffic congestion.
- EIt refutes the advocates' position by establishing that no municipal policy can successfully reduce traffic congestion unless it primarily addresses the frequency and reliability of transit routes.