Urban rail systems have been proposed to alleviate traffic congestion, but results in many cities have been cited as evidence...
GMAT Critical Reasoning : (CR) Questions
Urban rail systems have been proposed to alleviate traffic congestion, but results in many cities have been cited as evidence that this approach to traffic management is ineffective. For example, a U.S. city that opened three urban rail branches experienced a net decline of 3,100 urban rail commuters during a period when employment increased by 96,000. Officials who favor urban rail systems as a solution to traffic congestion have attempted to counter this argument by noting that commuting trips in that city represent just 20 percent of urban travel.
The response of the officials to the claim that urban rail systems are ineffective is most vulnerable to criticism on the grounds that it
Passage Analysis:
| Text from Passage | Analysis |
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| Urban rail systems have been proposed to alleviate traffic congestion, but results in many cities have been cited as evidence that this approach to traffic management is ineffective. |
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| For example, a U.S. city that opened three urban rail branches experienced a net decline of 3,100 urban rail commuters during a period when employment increased by 96,000. |
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| Officials who favor urban rail systems as a solution to traffic congestion have attempted to counter this argument by noting that commuting trips in that city represent just 20 percent of urban travel. |
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Argument Flow:
The passage presents a back-and-forth debate. First, we get the general claim that rail systems don't work, supported by a specific example of declining ridership despite job growth. Then officials defending rail systems offer a counterargument about commuting being only a small portion of total travel.
Main Conclusion:
There is no explicit main conclusion - this passage presents competing viewpoints about whether rail systems effectively reduce traffic congestion, with critics citing poor ridership data and supporters arguing that work commuting is only a small part of total travel.
Logical Structure:
This isn't a complete argument but rather a setup showing two opposing positions. The critics use the ridership decline as evidence that rail doesn't work, while supporters try to weaken this evidence by saying work travel is just 20% of all travel (implying the other 80% could still benefit from rail).
Prethinking:
Question type:
Misc - This is asking us to identify a flaw or weakness in the officials' counterargument. We need to find what makes their response vulnerable to criticism.
Precision of Claims
The officials' claim is about the scope/proportion of travel types - they say commuting trips represent only 20% of urban travel, implying the other 80% matters more for evaluating rail effectiveness.
Strategy
We need to identify logical flaws in how the officials are responding to the criticism. The critics showed that rail ridership declined despite job growth, and the officials countered by saying commuting is only 20% of travel. We should look for ways this response fails to actually address or counter the original criticism effectively.
This suggests the officials should have challenged the statistics themselves (the 3,100 decline in ridership or 96,000 job increase). However, we don't see the officials disputing these numbers, and there's no indication the statistics are wrong. The officials are trying a different approach - arguing about the relevance of commuting data rather than its accuracy. This doesn't identify the core flaw in their reasoning.
This claims the officials relied on general U.S. data rather than city-specific data. However, when the officials mention that "commuting trips in that city represent just 20 percent of urban travel," they're actually providing city-specific information about the same city mentioned in the criticism. They're not using general data, so this criticism doesn't apply.
This correctly identifies the flaw. The officials assume that because commuting represents only 20% of urban travel, the decline in rail commuting isn't significant for traffic congestion. However, commuting trips could cause much more than 20% of traffic congestion due to rush hour concentration, route patterns, or trip characteristics. The officials fail to consider this possibility, making their response vulnerable to criticism.
This suggests the officials should have shown that the ridership decline is typical across cities. But the officials aren't trying to normalize or contextualize this particular city's experience - they're arguing that commuting data isn't the right measure anyway. Whether this city is typical or atypical doesn't affect their argument strategy.
This claims the officials should have provided statistics about non-commuter rail usage. While this might strengthen their position, the absence of such statistics isn't what makes their current argument vulnerable. The flaw is in their assumption about the relationship between trip percentage and congestion contribution, not missing data about other passengers.