A City Choking on Cars Hopes Commuters Will Return to Two Wheels
北京，回歸自行車(chē)時(shí)代不容易
BEIJING — In the early morning haze, Sun Jian peddled his bicycle along a bustling ring road in Beijing, dodging buses and cars as he weaved his way through multiple lines of traffic.
北京——清晨薄霧繚繞，孫鍵在繁忙的北京二環(huán)路上騎著(zhù)自行車(chē)，他躲避著(zhù)公交車(chē)和汽車(chē)，在許多條車(chē)道的車(chē)流中穿梭。
“There are too many cars in the city — it’s like pouring a basin of water into a small bowl,” Mr. Sun, 39, said as he cut through a line of cars into a bike lane.
“北京車(chē)太多了就像一盆水倒進(jìn)了碗里，”39歲的孫鍵說(shuō)。他穿過(guò)一行汽車(chē)，插進(jìn)了自行車(chē)道。
On good days, Mr. Sun, a Beijing native and founder of a popular bike club, must cope with congestion and pollution on his way to work. On bad days, he faces car doors that unexpectedly open ahead of him and bitter fights with drivers parked in the bike lane.
孫鍵是北京本地人，也是一個(gè)人氣自行車(chē)俱樂(lè )部的創(chuàng )始人，運氣好的時(shí)候，他在上班途中只需要忍受交通擁堵和污染。運氣差的時(shí)候，他會(huì )遭遇突然打開(kāi)的汽車(chē)門(mén)，還會(huì )和把車(chē)停在自行車(chē)道上的司機吵起來(lái)。
Mr. Sun’s 30-minute commute is emblematic of a battle brewing on roads across the country. As China has urbanized, families have become more prosperous and many city residents have moved to suburbs many miles from their jobs. The resulting growth in car use combined with lax law enforcement have undermined a half-century tradition of commuting on bikes.
孫鍵上下班這30分鐘的路程很有代表性，象征著(zhù)中國各地道路上正在醞釀的一場(chǎng)戰斗。隨著(zhù)中國城市化進(jìn)程的推進(jìn)，以及居民生活變得富裕，很多城市居民搬到了與工作地點(diǎn)相距甚遠的郊區。由此帶來(lái)的汽車(chē)使用量增加，再加上中國寬松的執法狀況，破壞了半個(gè)世紀以來(lái)人們騎自行車(chē)上下班的傳統。
Nowhere is that battle more obvious than in Beijing, where buses, automobiles and electric scooters vie with cyclists for space. Today, only 12 percent of commuters in Beijing pedal to work, compared with 38 percent in 2000, according to government data.
在北京，這場(chǎng)戰役的可見(jiàn)度比其他地方都高。公交車(chē)、汽車(chē)和電動(dòng)車(chē)都在與自行車(chē)爭搶空間。政府數據顯示，目前北京上下班的人中只有12%騎自行車(chē)，2000年這個(gè)比例為38%。
But now, facing concerns about pollution, Beijing worries too many people have abandoned the bicycle, and it hopes to reverse course.
但是現在由于擔心環(huán)境污染，北京對太多的人放棄自行車(chē)感到不安，希望能夠逆轉這個(gè)趨勢。
China’s capital, often choked by motorized vehicles, is eager to encourage more commuters to return to two wheels. It wants to increase the proportion of commuters who use bikes to 18 percent by 2020, according to city transportation officials.
北京經(jīng)常出現機動(dòng)車(chē)輛堵塞的現象，因此熱心鼓勵更多人改騎自行車(chē)上下班。該市交通官員表示，希望到2020年，能讓騎自行車(chē)上下班的人提升到18%的比例。
The move is part of Beijing’s pledge to promote “green commutes” as it combats air pollution and traffic congestion. Acrid smog routinely blankets city skyscrapers and at times becomes so bad that it leads to an increase in hospital admissions.
這是北京承諾推動(dòng)的“綠色出行”計劃的組成部分，目的是改善空氣污染和交通擁堵。刺鼻的霧霾經(jīng)?；\罩著(zhù)北京林立的高樓，有時(shí)會(huì )變得非常嚴重，導致就醫人數增多。
Bikes became an integral part of China’s culture after 1949. Along with a sewing machine and a watch, a bicycle was once considered one of the three must-haves of every Chinese household.
1949年之后，自行車(chē)成為了中國文化的一個(gè)組成部分。它曾經(jīng)和縫紉機、手表一起被稱(chēng)為“三大件”，即每個(gè)中國家庭應有的三件必備之物。
Only two decades ago, Beijing’s streets were ringing with tinkling bells, and bike repair shops were kept busy. In fact, there were so many bikes that Beijing transportation officials reached out in 1994 to Dan Burden, then an American consultant with the United Nations, to solicit his opinion on how to manage them all given the new surge in private cars.
就在二十年前，北京還是滿(mǎn)街嘀鈴鈴的車(chē)鈴聲，自行車(chē)修理鋪忙得不可開(kāi)交。事實(shí)上，當時(shí)的自行車(chē)如此之多，以至于在1994年，北京的交通官員聯(lián)系到當時(shí)給聯(lián)合國擔任顧問(wèn)的美國人丹·伯登(Dan Burden)，尋求他對如何在私家車(chē)激增的情況下管理自行車(chē)的意見(jiàn)。
When told that the problem was too many bicycles, Mr. Burden offered the opposite view.
在被告知問(wèn)題在于自行車(chē)太多時(shí)，伯登提出了截然相反的看法。
Mr. Burden told officials in 1994 that bikes were a “victim of unplanned car growth and should not be shoved out of the way,” as they take up far less space than cars, he said in an email interview.
伯登在接受電子郵件采訪(fǎng)時(shí)說(shuō)，自己當年告訴相關(guān)官員，自行車(chē)是“無(wú)規劃的汽車(chē)增加的受害者，不應該把自行車(chē)趕走”，因為它們占的空間比汽車(chē)少。
But Mr. Burden’s advice was ignored.
但伯登的建議被忽略了。
“We believed the bicycle was the solution, but our message and solutions weren’t fully heard,” he said.
“我們認為自行車(chē)是解決問(wèn)題的辦法，但我們的話(huà)和提出的方案，沒(méi)有被完全聽(tīng)進(jìn)去，”他說(shuō)。
In the decades since, China has claimed the title of world’s biggest automobile market.
在自那之后的幾十年里，中國成為了世界最大汽車(chē)市場(chǎng)。
Persuading Beijing drivers to use their cars less is unlikely to be easy. To encourage more commuters to use bikes, city planners have proposed a ban on car parking on side roads less than 20 feet wide, more colored bike lanes and barricades to separate motor vehicles from nonmotorized ones.
勸北京的司機少開(kāi)車(chē)可能不那么容易。為了鼓勵更多的上班族使用自行車(chē)，城市規劃人員提議，禁止在不足20英尺（約合6米）寬的輔路上停車(chē)，并建議設立更多涂色的自行車(chē)道和分隔機動(dòng)車(chē)與非機動(dòng)車(chē)的護欄。
But many cyclists here are skeptical that the changes will make Beijing’s roads more hospitable anytime soon.
但這里的很多騎車(chē)人都懷疑，這些改變無(wú)法很快就讓北京的道路變得更適于騎車(chē)。
“What I can’t stand is that there are practically no bike lanes, and these are often occupied by cars,” said Fang Yongbin, who moved to Beijing last summer. He said he tried biking to work but quit after a month because of a variety of frustrations, including the smog and aggressive motorists.
“我無(wú)法忍受的是幾乎沒(méi)有自行車(chē)道，車(chē)道常常被汽車(chē)占了，”去年夏天來(lái)到北京的方永斌（音）說(shuō)。他稱(chēng)自己試過(guò)騎車(chē)上班，但一個(gè)月后就放棄了，原因包括霧霾、機動(dòng)車(chē)司機咄咄逼人，還有其他很多令其受挫的因素。
A study released this year by researchers at Peking University in Beijing found that air pollution, safety concerns and a lack of road space were the main reasons people avoided biking to work in the capital.
今年發(fā)表的一項研究發(fā)現，空氣污染、安全問(wèn)題和道路空間不足是首都民眾避免騎自行車(chē)上班的主要原因。該研究是由北京大學(xué)的研究人員開(kāi)展的。
The sheer number of vehicles and the lack of parking spaces remain major issues, said Li Wei, an engineer at the Beijing Municipal Institute of City Planning and Design, who is helping draft regulations intended to improve bicycling and pedestrian infrastructure in Beijing. The city has designed parking capacities that can accommodate only half of the five million cars in Beijing, he said.
北京市城市規劃設計研究院主任工程師李偉稱(chēng)，缺少停車(chē)位仍是主要問(wèn)題。他正在參與起草意在改善北京的騎車(chē)和行人基礎設施的規章。他說(shuō)，北京市設計的停車(chē)能力只能容納250萬(wàn)輛車(chē)。
“Many cars are parked not in real parking spaces, but on the roads,” Mr. Li said, adding that the city’s transportation policies have long favored cars. “Beijing has really reached a limit.”
李偉說(shuō)，“很多車(chē)沒(méi)有停在真正用來(lái)停車(chē)的地方，而是停在了馬路上?！崩顐ミ€說(shuō)，長(cháng)期以來(lái)，北京市的交通政策一直是對汽車(chē)有利的?！氨本┱娴牡竭_極限了?！?/p>
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