美国国家公共电台 NPR--E-bikes could be a more affordable way to reduce emissions

E-bikes could be a more affordable¹ way to reduce emissions²

Transcript³

With the average price of a new electric vehicle climbing to over sixty thousand dollars, might e-bikes be a more affordable solution to ditching gas powered cars?

A MART?NEZ, HOST:

Electric cars are seen as one way for Americans to reduce emissions. But these days, the average price of a new electric car is more than $60,000, according to Kelley Blue Book. Is there a more affordable way to ditch your fossil-fueled car? NPR's Adam Bearne has been trying to find out if electric bikes might be a better option.

ADAM BEARNE, BYLINE⁴: Lelac Almagor is on a mission to get out of the car.

LELAC ALMAGOR: I just really hate driving. The sitting and the being stuck and the waiting is just really not for me.

BEARNE: Public transportation here in Washington, D.C., used to be an option. But she's discovered its limitations now she has children.

ALMAGOR: I used to metro⁵ a lot and take the bus a lot. And then when I had kids, it just became a little bit too complicated to get to where we were going with the kids and the stuff that the kids have. It wasn't working well for me. I wasn't happy.

BEARNE: She's thought about commuting⁶ on a regular bike, but...

ALMAGOR: I think in my 20s was a repeatedly failed bike commuter⁷. I'm just really not that spandex cyclist type of person. That's just really not me. I really hate biking up hills.

BEARNE: Then she tried out an electric bike. E-bikes use a battery and an electric motor to boost the rider's input⁸, or the motor can just totally take over.

ALMAGOR: It was one of those orange JUMP bikes that they had around for a while. And I remember it was just amazing. I was going down to meet a friend at Eastern Market, which is further than I would typically be able to walk. And I got on the bike, and I just - I got there so quickly, and it was so much freaking fun. Like, I just - I felt like a child.

BEARNE: But to carry her kids and all their stuff, she needed something bigger than the average e-bike. So she settled on an e-cargo bike. It's actually a trike with two wheels at the front, one at the back and a big box in front of the rider that's got plenty of room for passengers. Almagor can carry her entire family in this bike. She proved it by taking me along for a ride with her 3-year-old son, Oren, strapped⁹ in next to me and her infant daughter, Tamar, snugly¹⁰ secured in a car seat, clutching a tambourine¹¹. For Almagor, this is way better than driving.

ALMAGOR: All of those minutes that we would normally be getting to school, running errands, getting to a friend's house, that time that used to be kind of dead time in my schedule - it still takes us time to get places, but now that's time that we're spending together. You know, we're talking. We're laughing. We're seeing things. I'm having fun. They're having fun.

BEARNE: Oren certainly enjoys being in the bike, especially the hills.

OREN: I like the up and down and up and down.

BEARNE: Preventing emissions isn't Almagor's main motivation, but she says it's an added bonus of the e-bike.

ALMAGOR: I do think that I felt guilty every single time I used the car, partly because of my concern about fossil fuels and my family's carbon footprint and whatever. But, like, if there hadn't been a way to fix it that was convenient and joyful¹², we would probably still be driving and feeling guilty about it.

BEARNE: The Bureau of Transportation Statistics found that in 2021, 52% of all trips were three miles or less. That's the kind of distance that most people can manage on an e-bike. That's why the city of Denver has made e-bikes a priority. Here's Grace Troccolo Rink, Denver's chief climate officer.

GRACE TROCCOLO RINK: We have a fairly car-dependent culture, so there's a fairly high rate of single-occupancy vehicle trips. And transportation is the No. 2 source of our greenhouse gas emissions but No. 1 in air pollution.

BEARNE: Denver residents can get $400 towards an e-bike or 1,200 if they are low income. If they want an e-cargo bike, something like the kind Almagor has, they can get an extra $500 on top of that. And that amount is right around the price of an entry-level e-bike, which are more expensive than most regular bikes. The program started last spring and proved so popular that all of the vouchers¹³ budgeted for last year were quickly snapped up. A new round of funding is being made available early this year, and Troccolo Rink says the city's already seeing results. They surveyed the people who received the money toward e-bikes.

TROCCOLO RINK: On average, the people who have responded are saying that they are biking 26.2 miles overall per week, and they're replacing 3.4 car trips for an average of 21.6 miles of replaced car trips per week. I think that's a pretty good result.

BEARNE: It's these numbers that inspire bike advocates to push for incentives¹⁵ for e-bikes from the federal government - advocates like Noa Banayan. She's with a group called PeopleForBikes. I met her for a ride from the White House to the U.S. Capitol, this time riding our own e-bikes. We rode in perhaps one of the country's most iconic bike lanes right in the middle of Pennsylvania Avenue, headed straight toward the Capitol building.

NOA BANAYAN: It's pretty spectacular. I've probably been biking on here, like, five, six years now, and it still doesn't quite get old.

BEARNE: For Banayan, riding an e-bike turns Capitol Hill into, well, Capitol flat. But to make e-bikes more than an occasional trend and more of a transformation¹⁶ for society, she says federal incentives are needed.

BANAYAN: It's about giving people choice in how they move. And if we're giving people an incentive¹⁴ to choose cars, electric vehicles, and not necessarily an electric bicycle, then we're sort of locking our transportation system into the way that it has been, which is really car-dominated. We view electric bicycles as this incredible opportunity to replace short car trips.

BEARNE: Why shouldn't there be the same kind of tax credits for e-bikes that there are for electric cars? she says.

BANAYAN: Every community should be thinking about, what are the fastest ways they can cut their emissions? It's not building out necessarily an electric-vehicle charging network that'll be live in five, 10 years. It's giving people an e-bike and giving them a safe place to ride it.

BEARNE: But e-bikes aren't as useful outside urban areas, points out Skyler McKinley of AAA. He's based in Denver.

SKYLER MCKINLEY: It is incredibly expensive across America to live in cities right now. Folks increasingly are not living in urban centers. They are further flung, where they might have to drive a significant amount of time to get to, say, the grocery store. In that case, they're probably going to go with an internal combustion¹⁷ engine over an e-bike.

BEARNE: But Lelac Almagor does have the option to do plenty of commuting on a bike with a boost.

ALMAGOR: Between me and my husband, we put 12,000 miles on our bikes in the last couple years. When I think about that number, what it means the most to me is how many minutes I spent having fun with my kids outside.

BEARNE: Adam Bearne, NPR News, Washington.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

1 affordable   

adj.支付得起的，不太昂贵的

参考例句：

• The rent for the four-roomed house is affordable.四居室房屋的房租付得起。
• There are few affordable apartments in big cities.在大城市中没有几所公寓是便宜的。

2 emissions   

排放物( emission的名词复数 )； 散发物（尤指气体）

参考例句：

• Most scientists accept that climate change is linked to carbon emissions. 大多数科学家都相信气候变化与排放的含碳气体有关。
• Dangerous emissions radiate from plutonium. 危险的辐射物从钚放散出来。

3 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

4 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

5 metro   

n.地铁；adj.大都市的；(METRO)麦德隆(财富500强公司之一总部所在地德国，主要经营零售)

参考例句：

• Can you reach the park by metro?你可以乘地铁到达那个公园吗？
• The metro flood gate system is a disaster prevention equipment.地铁防淹门系统是一种防灾设备。

6 commuting   

交换（的）

参考例句：

• I used the commuting time to read and answer my mail. 我利用上下班在汽车中的时间来阅读和答复给我的函电。
• Noncommuting objects are as real to the mathematicians as commuting objects. 对于数学家来说，不可交换的对象与可交换的对象是一样真实的。

7 commuter   

n.(尤指市郊之间)乘公交车辆上下班者

参考例句：

• Police cordoned off the road and diverted commuter traffic. 警察封锁了道路并分流交通。
• She accidentally stepped on his foot on a crowded commuter train. 她在拥挤的通勤列车上不小心踩到了他的脚。

8 input   

n.输入(物)；投入；vt.把(数据等)输入计算机

参考例句：

• I will forever be grateful for his considerable input.我将永远感激他的大量投入。
• All this information had to be input onto the computer.所有这些信息都必须输入计算机。

9 strapped   

adj.用皮带捆住的，用皮带装饰的；身无分文的；缺钱；手头紧v.用皮带捆扎(strap的过去式和过去分词)；用皮带抽打；包扎；给…打绷带

参考例句：

• Make sure that the child is strapped tightly into the buggy. 一定要把孩子牢牢地拴在婴儿车上。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The soldiers' great coats were strapped on their packs. 战士们的厚大衣扎捆在背包上。 来自《简明英汉词典》

10 snugly   

adv.紧贴地；贴身地；暖和舒适地；安适地

参考例句：

• Jamie was snugly wrapped in a white woolen scarf. 杰米围着一条白色羊毛围巾舒适而暖和。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The farmyard was snugly sheltered with buildings on three sides. 这个农家院三面都有楼房，遮得很严实。 来自《简明英汉词典》

11 tambourine   

n.铃鼓，手鼓

参考例句：

• A stew without an onion is like a dance without a tambourine.烧菜没有洋葱就像跳舞没有手鼓。
• He is really good at playing tambourine.他很擅长演奏铃鼓。

12 joyful   

adj.欢乐的，令人欢欣的

参考例句：

• She was joyful of her good result of the scientific experiments.她为自己的科学实验取得好成果而高兴。
• They were singing and dancing to celebrate this joyful occasion.他们唱着、跳着庆祝这令人欢乐的时刻。

13 vouchers   

n.凭证( voucher的名词复数 )；证人；证件；收据

参考例句：

• These vouchers are redeemable against any future purchase. 这些优惠券将来购物均可使用。
• This time we were given free vouchers to spend the night in a nearby hotel. 这一次我们得到了在附近一家旅馆入住的免费券。 来自英语晨读30分（高二）

14 incentive   

n.刺激；动力；鼓励；诱因；动机

参考例句：

• Money is still a major incentive in most occupations.在许多职业中，钱仍是主要的鼓励因素。
• He hasn't much incentive to work hard.他没有努力工作的动机。

15 incentives   

激励某人做某事的事物( incentive的名词复数 )； 刺激； 诱因； 动机

参考例句：

• tax incentives to encourage savings 鼓励储蓄的税收措施
• Furthermore, subsidies provide incentives only for investments in equipment. 更有甚者，提供津贴仅是为鼓励增添设备的投资。 来自英汉非文学 - 环境法 - 环境法

16 transformation   

n.变化；改造；转变

参考例句：

• Going to college brought about a dramatic transformation in her outlook.上大学使她的观念发生了巨大的变化。
• He was struggling to make the transformation from single man to responsible husband.他正在努力使自己由单身汉变为可靠的丈夫。

17 combustion   

n.燃烧；氧化；骚动

参考例句：

• We might be tempted to think of combustion.我们也许会联想到氧化。
• The smoke formed by their combustion is negligible.由它燃烧所生成的烟是可忽略的。