A question about prep CR

[JsamineS876]

59.A certain mayor has proposed a fee of five dollars per day on private vehicles entering the city, claiming that the fee will alleviate the city's traffic congestion. The mayor reasons that, since the fee will exceed the cost of round-trip bus fare from many nearby points, many people will switch from using their cars to using the bus.
Which of the following statements, if true, provides the best evidence that the mayor's reasoning is flawed?
(A) Projected increases in the price of gasoline will increase the cost of taking a private vehicle into the city.
(B) The cost of parking fees already makes it considerably more expensive for most people to take a private vehicle into the city than to take a bus.
(C) Most of the people currently riding the bus do not own private vehicles.
(D) Many commuters opposing the mayor's plan have indicated that they would rather endure traffic congestion than pay a five-dollar-per day fee.
(E) During the average workday, private vehicles owned and operated by people living within the city account for twenty percent of the city's traffic congestion.

The OA is B.
But I prefer D...In fact, I cannot understand why B is the right answer.
Here is my reason for D:
In the argument, the major believes that as the fee will exceed the cost of bus, many people will switch from using cars to using bus. This is a flaw in the reasoning question, so it must have something invalid in the argument.
As it is stated in the D, many people would rather endure traffic congestion than pay the fee, that is to say, people will still go on using the car, thus, the congestion situation cannot be alleviated.
And for B, I believe that the answer choice is just a statement, and it just states a fact set.
I cannot understand B, anyway.

[jnelson0612]

[size=85]59.A certain mayor has proposed a fee of five dollars per day on private vehicles entering the city, claiming that the fee will alleviate the city's traffic congestion. The mayor reasons that, since the fee will exceed the cost of round-trip bus fare from many nearby points, many people will switch from using their cars to using the bus.
Which of the following statements, if true, provides the best evidence that the mayor's reasoning is flawed?

(B) The cost of parking fees already makes it considerably more expensive for most people to take a private vehicle into the city than to take a bus.

(D) Many commuters opposing the mayor's plan have indicated that they would rather endure traffic congestion than pay a five-dollar-per day fee.

The OA is B.
But I prefer D...In fact, I cannot understand why B is the right answer.
Here is my reason for D:
In the argument, the major believes that as the fee will exceed the cost of bus, many people will switch from using cars to using bus. This is a flaw in the reasoning question, so it must have something invalid in the argument.
As it is stated in the D, many people would rather endure traffic congestion than pay the fee, that is to say, people will still go on using the car, thus, the congestion situation cannot be alleviated.
And for B, I believe that the answer choice is just a statement, and it just states a fact set.
I cannot understand B, anyway.

The best way to handle any assumption family question is to break the argument down, look for the assumption, then attack it.
Conclusion: The fee will alleviate traffic congestion.
WHY?
Premise: The fee is more than the cost of a roundtrip bus ticket. Therefore, people will stop driving and will take the bus.

What do you have to assume? That people are only motivated by money in making this decision. Money is the most important issue to people in making this decision.

How would you weaken the conclusion? You say that money is not necessarily the most important element in making this decision. Which answer choice says this?
B) B says that it already costs more to park in the city than it does to take the bus. If that's true, then people AREN'T making the decision as to how to get in the city solely on price. They are already paying more to drive into the city than to take the bus! So the mayor's plan won't be successful.

D) is not as good. It doesn't get at the assumption--that people will change their behavior based on money. To weaken the argument we must say that people don't make the decision based on money. D tells us that some people would rather sit in traffic than pay the fee, but once the fee is in place, it doesn't tell us that people will still rather pay the fee than save money by riding the bus. That's really the issue, not the traffic congestion.

[RonPurewal]

in simple terms:
• before: traffic
• after: pay $5

choice D just says that some people would rather have the "before" than the "after".
two major issues with this:
1/ we're only discussing the "after" situation, so this preference is irrelevant.
2/ these are "many commuters opposing the plan"--which still leaves open the possibility that many (or even most) other commuters would change their behavior upon the imposition of a fee.