Describe a common transportation system in your city – Cue Card # 309
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IELTS Speaking Part 2: IELTS Cue Card/ Candidate Task Card.
Describe a common transportation system for commuters in your city.
You should say:
- what kind of transport it is
- what types of people use this transport
- how convenient it is
and explain whether you like it or not.
Model Answer 1:
I live in a crowded city, so naturally, there are different types of transportation systems in it to serve the needs of its residents. So, while people tend to use all of these transportations at one point or another, depending on their needs as well as the availability of those transports, one common transportation system, which commuters in my city use rather frequently, is public and private buses.
Yes, the sight of many public and private buses roaming on the streets and roads of my crowded city is very common, which starts from the very early morning and continue with providing commuting services until very late at night. Apparently, people from all walks of life and professions use this rather common and popular commuting system because of their hours of availability and comparatively low fares. In fact, one could get a bus in my city every 10 or 15 minutes, depending on their travel routes, probably because the demand for these bus services are not the same all over the city. Anyway, so if we take the low fares and the high frequency of availability into consideration, one certainly would be tempted to consider this common transport system “convenient”. But, if they think about the issue of their overall travel comfort, they wouldn’t really consider it that convenient, simply because these buses are too crowded most of the times where many people have to stand on their feet for a long period of time. Besides, since these buses have to cover many designated bus stoppages in order to serve a maximum number of commuters, it usually takes a long period of time for the commuters to arrive at their destinations.
Anyway, to be fair, I don’t really like this popular and common transportation system, primarily because it usually costs me a lot of time to arrive at my destination due to huge traffic problems. Besides, the seats in most of these buses are not very comfortable for riding unless you are using luxury buses for your trip. But, then again, I am not really willing to pay so much money to ride these luxury buses.
Model Answer 2:
Public Bus is a very common transportation system in our country and the majority of the commuters in cities and urban areas use this transportation system. There are two types of public bus systems in our country- short distance buses and long-distance buses. There are many governments owned bus service system which is available mostly in the metropolitan system. There are varieties of sizes in these buses ranging from 10 seats to as many as 100 seats and even double-decker buses as well.
People from all classes and economic conditions use these buses and who do not own private cars, most of the times use this transportation system. Since there are cheap and expensive buses based on the facilities allowed, people with low earnings mostly use non-AC, small buses. While people with better economic conditions use air-conditioned and a bit expensive service.
This is the most convenient transportation system in our country in terms of expenses and availability. Hiring a taxi or private cars cost a lot and they are not always available. So people mostly depend on the public bus transportation system which offers a very low fare and are always available for almost all of the destinations.
I mostly use this bus transportation system for short and long-distance travels and communications and I find it very handy. Though there are some disadvantages of this transportation system, I would say still this is the best way for commuters to move to different places in my city.
Part 3 – Two-way discussion:
Q. What are some common transportations in your city?
Q. How do most people travel long distances in your country?
Q. Have the types of transport people use changed much over the last few decades?
Q. What kinds of improvement have there been in transport in your country in recent years?
Q. Do you think transport is likely to continue to improve in the future?
Q. Do you think the government should impose a restriction on citizens’ car ownership?
Your ability to talk about this Cue Card Topic would enable you to talk about the following Cue Card Topics as well:
- Describe a journey you took using public transportation.
- Describe a public transportation system available in your city.
- Describe the main transportation system available in your country.