Free IELTS Writing Task 1 Sample Academic Essay
The present bar chart illustrates how many times children commuted to school in 1990 and also in 2010; the figures are presented in millions.
Overall, the chart shows that, by 2010, children had switched from walking, cycling, and taking to bus to being driven to school in personal vehicles. While car use in 1990 was the least popular mode of travel, by 2010 getting a ride to school was by far the principal way of getting to school, which indicates the most dramatic change among the five categories. In addition, all other modes of transport underwent a marked decrease with walking experiencing the largest decline and cycling as the most shunned way of commuting in 2010.
As for modes of transportation that involved a vehicle, the chart shows that car use skyrocketed from just about four million trips to about 11 million, as the combination of walking and taking the bus dropped from just under 6 million trips to roughly 3 million. Taking the bus also experienced some decline, standing at seven million in 1990, yet falling to 5 million in 2010.
On the other hand, walking and cycling–modes of travel that did not involve motorized vehicles–followed the same declining trend, which walking dropping dramatically from over 12 million trips to six million. Furthermore, cycling, which had stood at six million trips in 1990, dropped to the lowest among all categories in 2010: a mere two million.
word count: 239
