双语阅读 骑车玩命.docx

1、双语阅读 骑车玩命双语阅读 骑车玩命？Paula Rodriguez, who lives in the San Fernando Valley, got so disgusted with soaring fuel prices last spring that she stopped driving, sold her SUV and bought a bike.But pedaling the 15 miles home from her job, the 30-year-old Ms. Rodriquez has encountered something more frighteni

2、ng than $4.50-a-gallon gasoline: the mean streets of L.A., home of the nations most entrenched car culture.Drivers scream at me to get off the road, says the medical-billing clerk. The main commuting route near her home is so terrifying, she says, that she usually takes an alternative route that add

3、s four miles to her trip.Even then, its not an easy ride. On one stretch, splintered glass in the street could puncture her tires, she says. On Wednesdays, she has to dodge garbage cans blocking the bike lane. On Friday evenings, as the sun sets, she feels menaced by drunk drivers. Such threats comp

4、el her to sometimes swing onto the sidewalk, even though that could get her a ticket. I go slow, ring my little bell and stop sometimes to say hi to pedestrians, she says.Commuters across the U.S. are responding to high gasoline prices by finding alternatives to driving. But in Los Angeles, it takes

5、 a special kind of road warrior to hop on a bike in the name of saving the planet and a little money.The city is notoriously short on bike lanes, bike paths and bike racks. Bicycles are illegal on the freeways, and city streets are packed with motorists who seem increasingly cranky about the swellin

6、g ranks of cyclists. Every cyclist seems to know somebody who has been injured or who has survived a near-death experience. In 2006, 28 people in Los Angeles County were killed on bikes, according to the California Office of Traffic Safety. Geography makes things difficult, too, as the distance from

7、 home to work in this sprawling metropolis can be immense and necessitate adding public transportation to the journey.Tensions between cyclists and motorists here have become dangerously combative. Los Angeles police are investigating an apparent July 4 road-rage incident that sent two cyclists to t

8、he hospital with serious injuries. The cyclists crashed into a car after its driver allegedly slammed on his brakes in front of them on Mandeville Canyon Road, a winding street through a hilly neighborhood.Cyclists have equal rights, but in fact a lot of motorists think they should get off the road,

9、 says Lynne Goldsmith, manager of the Los Angeles Metropolitan Transit Authoritys bike program. Nearly everyone has a bike sitting in the garage, but people are starting to actually use their bicycles for transportation, ranging from short hops to the market to long-distance commuting, she says. Whe

10、n were used to seeing more cyclists, we will treat them better.For now, commuting by bike here is most often an exercise in frustration. Michelle Weinsteins 75-minute commute to work begins at 6:50 a.m., when she dodges rush-hour traffic on a busy boulevard in the citys Silver Lake neighborhood on h

11、er way to a subway station. She hauls the bike onto the train, then takes it off in North Hollywood, about seven miles to the north.The next leg is an express-bus ride. But when the bus pulls up with a full bike rack, she must wait for the next bus. When she finally arrives in Van Nuys, she gets off

12、 the bus and back on the bike for a game of chicken with motorists.Its nerve-rackingly crowded, and people give me dirty looks, says Ms. Weinstein, a 33-year-old personal assistant at a music-production company. Everyone I know who has biked has met with some kind of injury, Ms. Weinstein says.Ms. G

13、oldsmith says the city has 1,200 miles of bikeways, but many of those are along busy thoroughfares on which cars and bikes compete for space. In West Hollywood, an enclave of 40,000 residents, debate is raging over the proper role of sidewalks. The issue has divided elderly pedestrians; environmenta

14、lists who ride bikes to work; and parents who worry about the safety of their children, whether in baby carriages or on bicycles.Biking advocates are offering classes to teach novices how to be defensive riders. Our classes are starting to sell out quickly, says Liz Elliott, a founder of the grass-r

15、oots organization Cyclists Inciting Change Thru Live Exchange. She says the group has so far instructed about 100 people. Many bike lanes are too narrow and you dont want to be hugging the door zone, she advises - referring to the space in which a parked car can swing its door open suddenly. Unfortu

16、nately, much of the local bike infrastructure was designed by engineers who dont ride bikes, she says.Veteran riders say that obnoxious motorists are the biggest problem. Michael Marckx, a 44-year-old vice president of Globe International Ltd., a skateboard company in El Segundo, recently started co

17、mmuting three or four days a week by bike, encountering what he calls caffeine-infused psychotics in their cars who yell at him to get off the road. Theres something about being in the car that is kind of anonymous. Its a veil to hide behind, and people seem to like to get their aggression out on cy

18、clists, says the former professional bike racer.Some cyclists are striking back. Stephen Box, a cycling activist who claims to have broken the Mandeville Canyon story on his blog, carries a camera and snaps pictures of bike-tripping potholes and confusing traffic signs. He sends the snapshots to the

19、 city. The community organizer says he and about a dozen bloggers drafted a Cyclists Bill of Rights in January that he is presenting for a vote at neighborhood council meetings around the region. But Lenore Solis, a council member in Atwater Village, says she voted against it because the assertion o

20、f a right to full access on all mass transit with no limitations is too broad, and could be interpreted as a legal right to bike lanes on freeways.Indeed, the freeways have been invaded repeatedly by renegade cyclists calling themselves Crimanimal Mass, an offshoot of Critical Mass, a national cycli

21、ng enthusiasts group. About 30 cyclists performed the illegal stunt in rush-hour traffic on a recent Friday to demonstrate how much faster commuters can zip through gridlock on a bicycle than in a car stuck in traffic.Despite the problems, L.A. cyclists keep trying. Kim Jensen Marren broke her ankle

22、 when she collided with a truck that pulled in front of her bicycle five years ago. But now the 30-year-old graphic designer is newly married and wants to save money to open her own wedding-productions business. So she recently got back on her bike and started riding to work again, figuring that she

23、 is saving about $220 a month.保拉罗德里格兹(Paula Rodriguez)住在洛杉矶郊区的圣佛南度谷。2007年春，她受够了日益高涨的汽油价格，于是决定不再开车，把运动型多用途车(SUV)卖掉，买了一辆自行车。从家到办公室，她要骑车15英里。然而，30岁的罗德里格兹遭遇了比4.5美元一加仑汽油更可怕的事：美国汽车文化最为根深蒂固的洛杉矶的危险街道。“司机冲我大叫大嚷，让我离开主路。”担任医疗帐单文员的罗德里格兹说道。她上下班的那条主路交通异常繁忙，她通常选择另一条路，要多骑4英里。即便如此，那条路也不好走。有段路的地上有碎玻璃，会扎坏自行车胎，她说道。在周三的

24、收垃圾日，她得避开自行车道上堆放着的垃圾桶。在太阳落山后的周五晚上，她担心喝醉酒的司机横冲直撞。这种担忧迫使她有时冒着被开罚单的危险，在人行道上骑车。“我骑得很慢，经常按车铃，有时停下来跟行走的路人打招呼。”罗德里格兹说道。全美国的上班族正在选择除开车外的其他交通方式，以应对高昂的汽油价格；但在洛杉矶，要想促进环保并节省一点油钱，骑自行车上下班也需要一种特殊的勇气。令人不快的是，洛杉矶的自行车道和自行车停放架都很少，而且在主干道上骑车是违法的。洛杉矶的街道车流量很大，司机对日益增多的骑自行车者的态度也越来越差。骑车一族好像都听说过因骑自行车受伤或差点送命的人。根据加州交通安全署(Califor

25、nia Office of Traffic Safety)的数据，2006年整个洛杉矶郡有28人在骑车时不幸身亡。此外，洛杉矶的地理情况也增加了骑车上下班的难度，在这片广阔的都市地带，上班的路途会很远，骑车者可能还需搭乘其他公共交通工具。骑车者和开车者之间的关系变得日益紧张。洛杉矶警方正在调查2008年7月4日的一起恶性交通事故，两名骑车者被严重撞伤，送往医院。据说，在蜿蜒曲折的曼德维尔峡谷山路上，肇事司机在自行车前故意急刹车，导致骑车者躲闪不及，撞上汽车。“骑自行车的人本应拥有同等的道路使用权，但事实上许多开车者认为，骑车的人应该离开公路。”洛杉矶都会区运输署(Los Angeles Met

26、ropolitan Transit Authority)自行车倡导项目的负责人林尼高斯密斯(Lynne Goldsmith)说道。几乎每个美国家庭的车库里都有一辆自行车，但人们已经开始真正把它作为交通工具了，用途包括从去附近市场买东西，到较长路程的上下班等等，“当我们看到越来越多的骑车者时，就会更重视这一类人群，”高斯密斯说。目前，在洛杉矶骑车上班往往是一件令人头疼的事情。米歇尔韦恩斯坦(Michelle Weinstein)骑车上班要75分钟，她早上6点50就要从这座城市的银湖(Silver Lake)社区出发，在繁忙的道路上躲避车辆，赶往地铁站。她把自行车带上地铁，然后在以北7英里的北好莱

27、坞站(North Hollywood)下车。下一段路程要坐公交快速车，但如果公汽配备的车架上已经放满自行车，她就只能等下一辆。在Van Nuys站下车后，她继续骑车，重新和汽车司机玩起了“狭路相逢勇者胜”的游戏。“路上非常拥挤，让人精神紧张，而且开车人的目光也很不友善。”33岁的某音乐公司助理韦恩斯坦说道，“我认识的每一个骑车者都在路上受过伤。”高斯密斯说，洛杉矶有1,200英里长的自行车道，但很多都在繁忙的干线道路旁，汽车和自行车争道现象严重。在拥有4万居民的西好莱坞，关于如何正确使用人行道的争论正如火如荼地展开。论战各方包括年老的步行者、骑自行车上班的环保主义者以及担心孩子安全的父母，不管

28、是用婴儿车还是骑自行车带孩子上路的家长。“自行车一族”正开班授课，教那些刚开始骑车的人如何安全上路。“我们的课程很快就被预订一空”，草根组织Cyclists Inciting Change Thru Live Exchange的创始人之一丽兹艾略特(Liz Elliott)说，目前该组织已经培训了约100名学员。她建议，很多自行车道都“太窄”，骑车人“要小心车门危险区域。”车门危险区域是指停靠着的汽车突然开车门所影响到的区域。不幸的是，当地大多数自行车基础设施都是由不骑车的工程师设计出来的，丽兹说道。经验丰富的骑车者表示，可恶的汽车司机是问题产生的最大根源。44岁的迈克马克兹(Michael

29、Marckx)是加州埃尔塞贡多滑板公司Globe International Ltd.的副总裁，最近开始骑自行车上下班，每周大约三、四天。他说路上有一些“被咖啡因冲昏头脑的疯子司机”在车里冲他嚷嚷，让他离开马路。“这些人躲在车里，可能觉得自己的身份不会被发现，往往对骑车的人态度十分蛮横。”曾是职业自行车运动员的马克兹说。一些骑车者正在奋起反抗。史蒂芬鲍克斯(Stephen Box)是一名自行车倡导者，据说通过自己的博客披露了“曼德维尔峡谷”交通事故。他经常随身携带照相机，拍下路面上容易让自行车摔倒的道路洞坑和令人费解的交通路牌，并把照片发给市政府相关部门。这位社区积极分子表示，他和十几名博主今

30、年1月草拟了一份“骑自行车者权利法案”(Cyclists Bill of Rights)，正提交给该地区的地方委员会进行投票。然而，埃特华村(Atwater Village)的地方委员莱诺索利斯(Lenore Solis)指出，她反对该议案，原因是议案中要求给予骑车者“所有主要道路的完全无限制使用权”这一规定过于宽泛，并可能被作为在各主干道上设置自行车道的法律依据。的确，这里的主干道正不断遭受Crimanimal Mass的骚扰，该组织是全美单车发烧友团体Critical Mass的分支。最近一个周五，约有30名骑自行车者在交通高峰时段违规表演单车暴走，展示穿梭自如的自行车在堵车时能比汽车速度快得多。虽然存在阻力，但洛杉矶的骑车者一直在努力着。金姆玛伦(Kim Jensen Marren)五年前撞上一辆突然停在前头的卡车，脚踝骨折。如今，这位30岁的平面设计师刚刚结婚，想存钱自己开一家婚庆公司，因此最近重新用上自行车，开始骑车上下班。她觉得这样每个月大概能省下220美元。