Can I simplify “It would appear to be the case that …” to “It would appear that …”

Question

The sentence I'm looking at is:

From the similarities and differences discussed above, it would appear to be the case that many people prefer travelling by car for reasons of comfort and safety.`

And I'd like to change it to:

From the similarities and differences discussed above, it would appear that many people prefer travelling by car for reasons of comfort and safety.`

The phrase "to be the case" in the first sentence seems a little redundant to me, because it doesn't say anything new. But I'm not sure if I can use "appear" that way in the second sentence.

Answer 1

Both of your sentences are acceptable. I agree that "to be the case" is superfluous.

But why not take it a step further? ... "Similarities and differences" are both what is revealed by "comparisons". "Discussed above" means, I presume, what you've just been talking about. The cleft construction with "it" is pompously indirect. Why 'appears'?-- do you mean the evidence is misleading, or just that it's not conclusive? "For reasons of" is verbose. And there's an awful lot of nouns ... So

These comparisons suggest that many people prefer to travel by car because it's safer and more comfortable.