公路救赎: 拥堵让中国人重拾自行车

For decades under communism, owning a private car was an impossible dream in China. Now that the dream has come true for tens of millions of Chinese, they are waking up each day to a life of traffic jams and smog.
曾有几十年的时间，在实行社会主义制度的中国，拥有一部私家车是一个遥不可及的梦想。如今，数千万中国人已实现了这一梦想，结果却发现，每天早上醒来后都有交通拥堵和雾霾天气在等待着自己。

Beijing’s air pollution has been so bad recently that it has captured headlines around the world – yet the capital has far from the dirtiest air in China. More and more mainland cities can boast world-class traffic congestion, parking shortages and commuting times, auto analysts say.
北京近来空气污染极为严重，引起了全世界的关注——然而，北京远非中国空气质量最差的城市。汽车业分析师表示，在交通拥堵和车位紧张程度、以及通勤时间方面，越来越多的内地城市已“跻身”世界前列。

Under Chairman Mao Zedong, schoolchildren were taught that these were the ills associated with capitalism, but China’s urban planners were no match for half a century of pent-up demand from first-time car buyers.
毛泽东时代的孩子在学校里学到的是，以上这些都是资本主义特有的问题，但当被压抑了半个世纪的首次购车需求集中释放时，中国城市规划者根本无力招架。

The country, whose showpiece industry event – the Shanghai Auto Show – starts this weekend, is now the world’s largest car market. And it is paying the price.
中国汽车行业的盛事——上海车展(Shanghai Auto Show)，已于上周末开幕。中国目前已成为全球最大的汽车市场，但它正为此付出代价。

With more than half of all Chinese living in cities, “smog and clog” are becoming big political issues. Even washing all those cars is exacerbating the country’s water shortage, according to a report last week from a Chinese NGO.
目前中国城镇人口比例已超过一半，“雾霾和拥堵”正成为一个重大政治问题。中国一家非政府组织(NGO)上周发布报告称，这么多汽车，仅是洗车都会导致中国缺水问题加剧。

The impact is so high that some cities are even thinking the unthinkable: sending China back to its roots as a nation of cyclists.
汽车带来了巨大的不利影响，以至于一些城市产生了一个不可思议的想法：让中国重新成为“自行车王国”。

“Ten years ago, everyone dreamt of owning a car. But after they realised that dream, they found it has caused a lot of problems,” says Dong Hongzhao of the Intelligent Traffic System programme at Zhejiang University of Technology. “Traffic congestion has harmed our health and caused a lot of inconvenience,” he adds, predicting that urbanites will soon be fed up enough to opt for public transport, or even bicycles.
浙江工业大学(Zhejiang University of Technology)研究智能交通系统的董红召表示：“十年前，所有人都梦想有辆汽车。但当他们梦想成真后，却发现这引发了许多问题。交通拥堵损害了我们的健康，导致了许多麻烦。”他预计，城市居民很快会受够了交通拥堵，转而选择公共交通、乃至自行车出行。

Schemes by local authorities to encourage people to use bikes are popping up across the country.
中国各地政府纷纷出台各种项目，鼓励人们骑车出行。

Hangzhou, the city where Mr Dong lives and works, is one of China’s most famous tourist cities but is also a municipality of 11m people, bigger than Greater London. It is famous throughout China for its traffic jams – but also for having the world’s largest public bicycle rental scheme.
董红召在杭州生活和工作。杭州是中国最著名的旅游城市之一，但也是一个拥有1100万人的超级大城市，人口比大伦敦(Greater London)还要多。杭州堵车之严重全国闻名，但该市拥有全球最大的公共自行车租赁项目，这一点同样全国知名。