Transportation engineer Maria Santos and her colleagues are currently investigating an unconventional approach to residential street design: implement...
GMAT Information and Ideas : (Ideas) Questions
Transportation engineer Maria Santos and her colleagues are currently investigating an unconventional approach to residential street design: implementing narrower roadways instead of the traditional wide streets that city planners have historically favored for traffic management. While broader streets undeniably facilitate higher vehicle volumes per hour and help minimize congestion during peak times, these same roadways create an unintended consequence. The increased width encourages drivers to travel at higher speeds, making accidents more severe when collisions do occur. This safety concern has led transportation experts to conclude that narrower residential streets will ultimately ______
Which choice most logically completes the text?
reduce traffic congestion by allowing more vehicles to travel simultaneously.
improve overall safety outcomes by encouraging slower, more cautious driving behavior.
require more complex intersection designs than wider streets typically need.
handle significantly more vehicle volume than the widest highways currently do.
Step 1: Decode and Map the Passage
Part A: Create Passage Analysis Table
| Text from Passage | Analysis |
|---|---|
| "Transportation engineer Maria Santos and her colleagues are currently investigating an unconventional approach to residential street design:" |
|
| "implementing narrower roadways instead of the traditional wide streets that city planners have historically favored for traffic management." |
|
| "While broader streets undeniably facilitate higher vehicle volumes per hour and help minimize congestion during peak times," |
|
| "these same roadways create an unintended consequence." |
|
| "The increased width encourages drivers to travel at higher speeds, making accidents more severe when collisions do occur." |
|
| "This safety concern has led transportation experts to conclude that narrower residential streets will ultimately" |
|
Part B: Provide Passage Architecture & Core Elements
Main Point: Research into narrower residential streets is motivated by safety concerns, as wide streets encourage dangerous speeding despite their traffic flow benefits.
Argument Flow: The passage begins by introducing research into an unconventional street design approach. It acknowledges the traffic benefits of traditional wide streets but reveals a critical safety problem—they encourage speeding, making accidents more severe. This safety concern leads logically to the conclusion that narrower streets will provide some benefit.
Step 2: Interpret the Question Precisely
This is a fill-in-the-blank question asking us to choose the best logical connector. The answer must create the right relationship between what comes before and after the blank.
Step 3: Prethink the Answer
- The passage builds a clear argument: wide streets have traffic benefits but create a safety problem by encouraging speeding
- Since the research is investigating narrower streets as an alternative, and the conclusion follows from "safety concern," the answer should:
- Address the safety issue that was raised
- Explain how narrower streets would solve the speeding problem
- Connect to the idea that narrower streets would encourage different (safer) driving behavior
- So the right answer should explain that narrower streets will improve safety by making drivers go slower and drive more carefully
reduce traffic congestion by allowing more vehicles to travel simultaneously.
✗ Incorrect
- Claims narrower streets reduce congestion by allowing more vehicles
- This directly contradicts the passage, which states that "broader streets undeniably facilitate higher vehicle volumes"
- What trap this represents: Students might confuse the traffic flow benefits, but those belong to wide streets, not narrow ones
improve overall safety outcomes by encouraging slower, more cautious driving behavior.
✓ Correct
- States narrower streets improve safety by encouraging slower, more cautious driving
- This perfectly addresses the safety concern raised in the passage
- Logically follows from the evidence that wide streets encourage dangerous speeding
require more complex intersection designs than wider streets typically need.
✗ Incorrect
- Focuses on intersection design complexity
- The passage doesn't discuss intersections or design complexity at all
- Doesn't address the safety concern that drives the research
handle significantly more vehicle volume than the widest highways currently do.
✗ Incorrect
- Claims narrower streets handle more vehicle volume than highways
- This contradicts the passage's clear statement that wider streets facilitate higher volumes
- Makes an extreme comparison to highways that isn't supported by the passage