Running Head: ISSUES WITH TRAFFIC CONGESTION

Using Railroad Technology to Alleviate Congestion

Omar Khalik
University of Texas at El Paso
Professor Marco Rodriguez
RWS 1302: Rhetoric & Composition 2

Introduction
The backbone of the American economy relies on transportation. One third of the United
States energy is generated from coal which is transported from coal mines to energy facilities;
virtually one hundred percent of goods found in stores are transported in semi-trailer trucks.
Most people rely on vehicular transportation to get to work. These are just some examples of
how the United States is extremely dependent on transportation, and with traffic congestion
getting worth everyday, the need to find an alternative reliable transportation is imminent.
Whats Up With That: Building Bigger Roads Actually Makes Traffic Worse is an online
article published by Wired, which states that while popular convention holds that by expanding
our freeways and roads, and adding additional lanes and roadways would alleviate traffic
congestion, research shows that this actually does nothing to alleviate the problem. One proposed
solution is outlined in Wendell Coxs comprehensive research essay Freight Rails Potential to
Alleviate Traffic Congestion, which sees railroad transportation as the solution to the United
States traffic woes. Both the online article from Wired and Coxs essay both address the issue at
hand, which is that traffic congestion is bad and will continue to get bad unless an alternative
solution is found. These two genres will be discussed and analyzed in the remainder of this
paper.
Audience and Purpose
The first genre, the article from Wired magazine, Whats Up With That: Building Bigger Roads
Actually Makes Traffic Worse, is intended to be read by people who like technology and how it
fits into todays world. Wired describes itself as a magazine that reports on how technology
affects culture, people, politics, and economy. The article being discussed in this analysis is an
online science article that slams the popular opinion that by increasing lanes and adding
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roadways that traffic will become less. The article goes through great lengths citing several
sources, years of research, and many experts who all claim that the popular convention is false;
instead that increasing lanes and roadways causes more traffic. This article is intended to inform
readers that their intuition in thinking that the easy fix for traffic is not true. The author claims
that several common people think that they know the solution to fixing traffic, and this article
thoroughly explains to these people that increasing roadways is not the answer, instead, that they
need to explore other alternatives. This article is not so much a call-to-action to find other
alternatives so much as it is just an information piece on giving several examples why expanding
roadways will not work. After reading the article, the audience will second-guess their idea and
more than likely will buy into the authors message, because it doesnt use opinion, it uses
researched facts. The article is about a 5-10 minute read that is written in a manner that most
people can understand. There isnt much specialized vocabulary used in the article, but being as
it is an article about transportation, terms relating to transportation, traffic and roadways are all
used heavily throughout the article.
The second genre, written by Wendell Cox, a Senior Fellow at the Texas Public Policy
Foundation (a Texas based think tank group) is an extensively researched essay, similar to a
comparative review entitled, Freight Rails Potential to Alleviate Traffic Congestion. This
essay is intended to be lobbied among politicians in Texas and aims to push for an increased
railroad use to alleviate traffic congestion. From the first two sentences of the essays abstract,
Urban areas around the nation face serious traffic congestion. While trucks represent an
important resource, they have a disproportionately high impact on traffic congestion. it is
apparent that the author strongly believes that trucks are a huge reason for traffic congestion, and
further in the abstract he goes on to say that the freight rail industry is the only solution to

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alleviate traffic. The essay has its limitations in that its intended to be a paper focused only on
Texas, only referring to other areas as examples to prove a point in the paper. The audience ties
in with the purpose because the audience are Texas legislators who want to make Texas greater,
and this essay purports that if Texas changes key aspects of trucking in regards to transportation
of goods, congestion will be alleviated by switching to railroads. This essay cites several
examples from all across the United States and the rest of the world that successfully illustrate
the importance of railroads to alleviate congestion. These state legislators likely already know
that there is congestion problems in Texas cities (they meet in Austin regularly, so they would
have had to experience Austin traffic, as they meet and conduct their business in Austin). To
accomplish what the author wants, legislation would have to be passed to encourage service
providers to transport their goods instead of by trucks. Give incentives to companies that use
railroads over highways, and tax trucking companies for using public freeways. To do this would
require discussion within the Texas legislature and could potentially be a lengthy discussion. The
entire essay would take a few hours to go through, but the material is not hard to understand,
with the bulk of the essay consisting of examples, research and data to further support the essays
objective. This genre is tailored to congressman in the Texas legislature, so it uses specialized
language intended to be more formally written and in a manner appropriate for lawmaking
members of the Texas legislature.
The two genres are very different in terms of style and wording. The article on Wired is
only 3 pages whereas Coxs essay is 77 pages. Both acknowledge a central issue, that is that
congestion is becoming a major problem and will only increase if no steps are done to alleviate
the problem. And both genres acknowledge that the solution is not building more roads and
expanding current roads/freeways, both genres agree that the solution is alternative solutions.

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The online article offers railroads as one viable solution to fix congestion, but also claims a few
other solutions could lie in making poll stations on all roads, or giving incentives to drivers to
drive during non-peak times. The essay by Cox claims that the only practical solution for
congestion is to increase our dependence on railroads and get trucks to convert to railroad
transportation and offer more railway transport within cities. Both genres also agree that there are
several advantages to railroads as opposed to trucks in that railroads are incredibly more energy
efficient, help decongest roadways, are able to transport more goods further, and that railroads
are a private industry, meaning that taxpayers do not have to pay for rail, whereas taxpayers do
have to pay for the roads and highways that trucks use.
Rhetorical Issues: Ethos, Pathos and Logos
The Wired article establishes credibility because it is a well revered technology magazine
and is effective in helping to achieve its purpose because readers assume that this issue is within
the realms of technology because technology is the application of scientific knowledge for
practical purposes which is what it is arguing about. The second genre is arguably more credible
though because it is a Think Tank organization, focused in Texas, arguing for a change in Texas
with more extensive research and Data to support its claims. The emotional response evoked
from both genres are that most Americans have experienced traffic congestion and assumes that
most people get frustrated with congestion and that it is a problem and explore alternatives. They
both use the same emotional appeal to help their cause. The online article gives evidence in terms
of research and experts on the subject whereas the essay gives evidence by using a lot more
research than the other genre offers and offering hard data that the other genre fails to produce.
The essay offers examples of cities who have implemented a heavier push on rail transport and
have experienced less congestion as a result.

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Structure and Delivery

The online article is limited in that it is intended for more casual readers than the essay,
so as such it cannot expand on the subject as much as the essay does. The online article, as a
result, is only a few pages long and is limited in that sense. The article is intended to be an easy
read. The essay on the other hand is a comprehensive research paper who has an incredibly more
targeted audience, instead of being targeted to casual readers, this essay is targeted at Texas
Lawmakers. The font isnt as aesthetic and is structured like a research paper with a lot of
resources and data throughout the paper.
The article on Wired is an online article so there are some ads on the webpage and
formatting is more important for ease of reading to grab the readers attention. The essay is a
paper that is intended to be printed and passed along members of the Texas congress and
assumes that these congressmens will do their jobs and read the paper so as such it is not as
aesthetically pleasing as the online article. Only the research paper however uses graphs and
visuals in key areas to help support an argument that is being talked about in that instance of the
paper.
Conclusion/Synthesis
The genre more effective in conveying its message is the essay written by Cox because it
is vastly more well thought out and comprehensive and offers so much more research and data.
The online article, though captivating and easier to read because of its shorter nature, is not as
convincing as the research paper by Cox because Cox goes through great lengths to support all
his claims giving numerous examples for each claim he makes.

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The impact of genres in discourse is important because it allows people with all sorts of
interests to be informed about a topic in whatever style is more liking to them. Some people may
not know how to read so video and audio genres would be the only way for these people to
obtain necessary information. Some people might prefer to read things in newspapers as opposed
to online articles. The variety of genres is important and all play a role in discourse. Some genres
are more effective at conveying information than others but each genre has its own specialty and
purpose.

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References
Cox, W. (2001). Freight Rail's Potential to Alleviate Traffic Congestion. Austin: Texas Public Policy
Foundation.
Mann, A. (2014, June 17). What's Up With That: Building Bigger Roads Actually Makes Traffic Worse.
Retrieved from wired: http://www.wired.com/2014/06/wuwt-traffic-induced-demand/

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