13 Traffic Jams

CHAPTER 1 Traffic LIFE IS FAST IN BUSY CITIES, BUT TRAFFIC IS SLOW. WHAT'S THE ANSWER? Today, we have a big problem: traffic! There are too many cars in cities and sometimes outside cities, too. This isn't a new problem. Before cars, people used vehicles with horses. There were a lot of them, and they made a lot of noise! A famous English writer, Samuel Pepys, wrote about London traffic jams 350 years ago! Today, people often don't live near their work. In many places, there aren't many trains and buses, and they're expensive. So people drive to work. A lot of people use their cars to go into cities in the morning and home in the evening. Often, there's only one person in each car. And there are too many cars. In Tokyo, New York, London, and other big cities the traffic goes very slowly, only 15 kilometers an hour! Bicycles travel faster! It can be hard to park, too. Sometimes, almost half the cars in a city center are looking for a place to park. In some cities, there is only one parking space for every two cars!

在繁忙的城市里，交通生活是快的，但交通却是慢的。 答案是什么？今天，我们遇到了一个大问题：交通！城市里有太多的汽车，有时城市外也有。 这不是一个新问题。在汽车出现之前，人们使用带马的交通工具。 他们有很多人，他们制造了很多噪音！著名的英国作家塞缪尔·佩皮斯在350年前就写过伦敦的交通堵塞！如今，人们通常不住在工作地点附近。 在许多地方，没有很多火车和公共汽车，而且它们很贵。 所以人们开车去上班。很多人早上开车进城，晚上开车回家。 通常，每辆车里只有一个人。 而且汽车太多了。 在东京、纽约、伦敦和其他大城市，交通非常缓慢，每小时只有15公里！自行车走得更快！它也很难停车。 有时，市中心几乎一半的汽车都在找地方停车。 在一些城市，每两辆车只有一个停车位！

CHAPTER 2 Finding Answers TRAFFIC IS A PROBLEM, BUT WHAT CAN DRIVERS DO ABOUT IT? In places where traffic is bad, drivers find different answers to the problem. People who live in the same place can have a carpool— they go to work and come home in the same car. They often use a different person's car each day. There's less traffic when three or four people use only one car. In some countries there are special fast lanes for carpools. Cars with only one person can't use these lanes. Many drivers have no other person in their car. But they want to use the fast lanes. So some of them put a big doll in their car! They want the police to think the doll is a person. But if the police stop the driver, he or she has to pay a fine. People say some funny things when police stop them in a fast lane. One time, the police stopped a woman. She was the only person in the car. But she said, "It's OK. I'm going to have a baby! I'm two people!" She had to pay the fine.

交通是个问题，但是司机能做些什么呢？ 在交通拥堵的地方，司机们会找到不同的解决方法。 住在同一个地方的人可以拼车——他们上班和回家坐同一辆车。 他们经常每天用不同的人的车。 当三四个人共用一辆车时，交通就会减少。 在一些国家有专门的拼车快车道。 只有一个人的汽车不能使用这些车道。 许多司机的车里没有其他人。 但他们想走快车道。 所以他们中的一些人在他们的车里放了一个大娃娃！他们想让警察认为娃娃是人。 但如果警察拦下司机，他或她必须支付罚款。 当警察在快车道上拦住他们时，人们会说一些有趣的话。 有一次，警察拦住了一个女人。 她是车里唯一的人。 但她说：“没关系。我要生孩子了！我是两个人！”她必须付罚款。

To use fast lanes, people also use "casual carpooling." Some people wait in a place near a road with a fast lane. Drivers see that people are waiting there. They stop and give them a ride. They don't know the people. But they want another person in their car. Then they can use the fast lane. Why don't more people take public transportation to go to work? In many cities, buses and trains are fast and not expensive. The problem is that many people really like their cars. GPS tells you how to get to your destination. But does GPS help drivers to go faster? And does it stop traffic jams? Maybe. It's easier for drivers with GPS to get to their destination. They don't have to drive for a long time to find the right street. So there's less traffic. And some kinds of GPS show where the traffic isn't moving. Drivers can take a different road and stay out of traffic jams.

为了使用快车道，人们还使用“随意拼车”。 有些人在有快车道的路边等。 司机们看到人们在那里等着。 他们停下来载他们一程。 他们不了解这里的人。 但他们想要另一个人在他们的车里。 然后他们就可以走捷径了。 为什么没有更多的人乘坐公共交通工具去上班？ 在许多城市，公共汽车和火车既快又不贵。 问题是很多人真的很喜欢他们的车。 GPS会告诉你如何到达目的地。 但是GPS能帮助司机开得更快吗？ 它能阻止交通堵塞吗？ 也许吧。有GPS的司机更容易到达目的地。 他们不需要开很长时间就能找到正确的街道。 所以交通比较少。有些GPS会显示哪里的交通不畅通。 司机可以走另一条路，避开交通堵塞。

CHAPTER 3 No Parking! IN THE CITY, YOU CAN'T PARK! WHAT'S THE ANSWER? Drivers are unhappy when they can't find a parking space. In big cities, sometimes 40 percent of cars are looking for a space. In Freiburg, Germany, at one time it was 74 percent of cars! All those vehicles move slowly around the streets. They make traffic jams. Drivers don't like to pay to park. But if they don't have to pay, more people use their cars. So there are too many cars for the number of parking spaces. What are the answers to this problem? One answer is a congestion charge money that you pay to drive in a city. Drivers in London have to pay 10 ($16) a day. Cameras take photos of the license plates on cars. Computers check if the drivers paid the congestion charge. If not, they have to pay a fine. Another answer is good, cheap public transportation: buses, trains, and trams. Paris now has 15 percent less parking than ten years ago. But it has more bus lanes. Buses travel faster. More people park their cars outside Paris and take the train or bus into the city now.

第三章禁止停车！在城市里，你不能停车！答案是什么？ 司机找不到停车位时很不高兴。 在大城市，有时40%的汽车都在寻找停车位。 在德国的弗赖堡，曾经有74%的汽车都是这样！所有这些车辆在街道上缓慢行驶。 他们制造交通堵塞。司机不喜欢停车收费。 但如果他们不需要支付，更多的人使用他们的汽车。 所以停车位的数量远远超过了汽车的数量。 这个问题的答案是什么？ 一个答案是交通拥堵费，你在城市里开车要付的钱。 伦敦的司机每天要付10英镑。 照相机拍下了汽车的车牌。 电脑检查司机是否支付了拥堵费。 否则，他们必须支付罚款。 另一个答案是物美价廉的公共交通：公共汽车、火车和有轨电车。 巴黎现在的停车位比十年前少了15%。 但是它有更多的公交车道。 公共汽车行驶得更快。现在越来越多的人把车停在巴黎郊外，乘坐火车或公共汽车进城。

When drivers park in the wrong place, they have to pay a fine. How much money do cities get from these fines? With 22,000 fines each day, New York City makes $600 million a year! But Sydney, Australia, only made $13 million last year. More drivers park in the right place in Sydney. Vehicles get fines, but what about animals? There's an old law in Florida. It says that if you leave an elephant in a parking space, you have to pay. If not, you get a fine! A lot of people want to drive into cities. And when it's cheap to park in a city center, there are too many cars, and it isn't possible to find a parking space. That's why it can be very expensive to park in some cities— $89 a day in Oslo, Norway. In London, you can pay about $1,000 a month for a city center parking space. But maybe the most expensive parking space in the world was in Greenwich Village in New York City in 2012. To buy it you needed $1,000,000!

如果司机把车停错了地方，他们就得付罚款。 城市从这些罚款中得到多少钱？ 纽约市每天罚款2.2万张，一年就能赚到5亿美元！但澳大利亚悉尼去年的销售额仅为300万美元。 在悉尼，越来越多的司机把车停在合适的地方。 车辆会被罚款，但动物呢？ 佛罗里达有一条古老的法律。 上面说，如果你把大象放在停车位上，你必须付钱。 否则，你会被罚款的！很多人想开车进城。 当在市中心停车很便宜的时候，车太多了，找不到停车位。 这就是为什么在一些城市停车很贵的原因——在挪威的奥斯陆一天9美元。 在伦敦，一个市中心停车位的月租金约为5000英镑。 但也许世界上最昂贵的停车位是2012年在纽约的格林威治村。 要买你需要的，000,000！

CHAPTER 4 Strange Travelers THINK ABOUT HOW WE TRAVEL. STRANGE, ISN'T IT? In Ben Elton's book Gridlock, aliens come to our world to learn about people. They look at the places where we live and work, and how we travel. But they don't understand cars. They see that every morning hundreds of millions of people get into big boxes. These boxes take the people many kilometers to their workplace. But often, the big boxes can't move because there are so many of them. Then, in the evening, the people get into their boxes and slowly drive home again. The aliens think this is really strange. Why don't people travel in the faster boxes they call trains and buses? Or live near their workplace? Do they like to sit in boxes for hours? Or aren't they very smart? The aliens are right. Why don't we live near our workplaces? It's often because houses are too expensive in the city. People who lived in the city before have to live outside it now. But many jobs are in the city center. Cheaper houses in cities are a possible answer to traffic problems.

第四章奇怪的旅行者思考我们如何旅行。 很奇怪，不是吗？在本·埃尔顿的书《僵局》中，外星人来到我们的世界是为了了解人类。 他们观察我们生活和工作的地方，以及我们如何旅行。 但他们不懂汽车。 他们看到每天早上都有数亿人挤进大箱子。 这些箱子把人们送到千里之外的工作地点。 但通常情况下，大箱子无法移动，因为它们太多了。 然后，在晚上，人们进入他们的箱子，慢慢地开车回家。 外星人觉得这很奇怪。 为什么人们不乘坐他们称为火车和公共汽车的更快的箱子呢？ 或者住在工作地点附近？ 他们喜欢在盒子里坐上几个小时吗？ 或者他们不是很聪明吗？ 外星人是对的。我们为什么不住在工作地点附近呢？ 通常是因为城市里的房子太贵了。 以前住在城里的人现在不得不搬到城外去住。 但是很多工作都在市中心。 城市里便宜的房子可能是解决交通问题的一个办法。