Advantages and Disadvantages of Cycling as Main Transport

Many people believe that using a bicycle as your main form of transport has a lot of advantages whereas others think that it has many disadvantages. Discuss both views and give your opinion.

Annotated response

7 correction notes

Showing 7 correction notes.

Bicycles are widely cited to be one of the most sustainable means of transport. However, some people have pointed out that bicycles have several shortcomings, while others have lauded them as a boon. This essay will examine both these divergent viewpoints.

Firstly, the chief advantage of a bicycle is its nominal costs as compared to other means of transport. Secondly, it is also beneficial for health, providing an excellent opportunity for cardiovascular exercise. In addition, cycling helps people reduce weight and keeps muscles supple. Research has stated that cycling can help the symptoms of disorders such as osteoarthritis. Lastly, it is environment-friendly as it has no harmful fume emissions, unlike other vehicles, which will decrease pollution as well as offer a sagacious solution for global warming.

However, there are certain problems associated with cycling as well. It is long-distance travel and is time-consuming. Further, it has hardly any capacity for it for transporting goods. Further, cycling also road accidents, as cars and other vehicles often fail to take notice of cyclists on busy roads. Moreover, it involves the additional problem of leaving one to the caprices of weather, unlike other means of transport.

Thus, in conclusion, it can be stated that while cycling is not without its share of problems, it economical means of transport that has numerous benefits for people, such as providing them with the opportunity to engage in physical exertion and remain healthy while also proving beneficial for the ecosystem.

Overall assessment

Why this response received Band 7.0

The response addresses both sides of the debate with clearly organized supporting ideas and reaches a clear personal conclusion. Its strongest aspect is the sophisticated vocabulary range, while the main limitation is that some ambitious word choices are used imprecisely, slightly straining naturalness.

IELTS criteria

How each score was decided

Task Response

7.0

The response addresses both views with relevant, developed ideas and presents a clear opinion in the conclusion, though the opinion is introduced only briefly rather than threaded throughout the argument.

Coherence and Cohesion

7.0

Ideas are organized logically into clear paragraphs with a recognizable progression, but cohesive devices such as Firstly, Secondly, Lastly, and repeated Further are somewhat mechanical and overused.

Lexical Resource

7.0

There is a wide and ambitious range of vocabulary with some natural sophistication, though imprecise collocations such as depreciate the symptoms and imperils people to occasionally reduce naturalness.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy

7.0

A variety of complex structures is used with generally good flexibility and accuracy, with only occasional minor slips such as it is a largely an economical means that do not impede understanding.