【英语趣味课堂】汽车与交通-Cars and Traffic

 Todd: So, Shifani, what is your current job?

Shifani: Well, I work as a transport planner for a consultancy, an international consultancy based in New Zealand.

 

Todd: Okay. So, transport planner - is that like you plan things being transported like across the ocean?

 

Shifani: No. You're talking about logistics there. So, no, that's not logistics. Transport planning stems¹ from town planning, town or city planning. If you think about it, a city is a network of buildings and of transport infrastructures². So you've got your roads, you've got your trains, you've got your buses, and you've got place for your cars. So basically, transport planning involves planning of things that you can use to move people around.

 

Todd: So, like what specifically do you do? Do you like, you know, design bus routes or -

 

Shifani: Well, the job is very, very varied³. So, I can plan bus routes; that's something I can do. But quite often, it ends up being policy-driven work. What I end up doing is environmental impact assessments⁴, for example. So, if you've got a new project coming in, if you've got a new shopping center, for example, I'd look at what impact it would have on the environment, in terms of traffic, in terms of what options people have to get to the shopping center, and if there is a possibility to reduce car use, how could that be implemented⁵.

 

Todd: So, what are some ways that you can reduce car use?

 

Shifani: Well, there are quite a few different ways. First would be to influence people's behavior, so change their mental attitude towards transport. If you can make it easy for them to walk and to cycle to a given destination, they'll choose to do so. Second is to hike up petrol prices, which is something that the government controls, obviously. The other thing you could do is make parking of cars very difficult at common public places. If finding a car park is difficult, people are more likely to catch public transport, or just to walk or cycle.

 

The other thing is to promote the benefits of taking public transport and of walking and cycling. Benefits, such as health benefits, I mean, there are benefits from walking because it's healthier. And then, there are benefits of not driving, which means you're not emitting pollution into the air, so overall, a win-win situation if you don't drive.

 

Todd: Can you give us some tangible⁶ results where this has actually happened?

 

Shifani: Absolutely. A project I recently worked on was on a shopping center in Auckland. It's quite a big shopping center in the east of Auckland, and there is not good public transport around. So, there are not that many buses, there's no train station there, a lot of car parking. So, the owners of the shopping center wanted to influence people and make them catch the bus, the little that was available. So, they hired our consultancy, and I worked on some of the reports for them. And we basically looked at simple things that we could do to promote walking and cycling, first off, and then buses.

 

So, the first thing we did was we organized a fun run on a Sunday, where people from the local vicinity⁷ were invited. So, when people walked to the shopping center on that Sunday, they realized they could actually walk it. It was quite simple. And a lot of these people had never, ever attempted to walk. So we ended up getting a ten percent increase in the people who traveled by walking or cycling, per se. So, what we had was people realizing, - Oh, you know what? I can walk there. But because they'd never done it before, it was something they just didn't want to attempt.

 

Todd: So basically, your job is to reduce cars.

 

Shifani: If you want to sum it up that way, yes. But I think if you flip⁸ it over and say promote the use of public transport, walking and cycling, that's what my aim is.

 

重点词汇：

 

Learn Vocabulary from the lesson

hike up

 

Hike up petrol prices.

 

When we hike up prices, that means we increase them. Notice the following:

 

The hotels hike up the price of rooms during the high season.

The 2011 political crises⁹ across the Middle East greatly hiked the price of oil.

catch public transport

People are more likely to catch public transport.

 

To catch public transport means to take a bus, taxi, etc. Notice the following:

 

Forget renting a car, let's just catch public transport.

We can catch public transport right outside the airport exit doors.

win-win situation

Overall, it's a win-win situation.

 

A win-win situation is where everyone ends up happy. Notice the following:

 

I cook, you clean, it's a win-win situation.

A win-win situation should be the desired outcome¹⁰ in business.

fun run

 

We organized a fun run.

 

A fun run is a race that is not serious. It is usually organized to raise money for charity. Notice the following:

 

My whole family entered the 10K fun run on Saturday.

We organized the fun run to benefit the local community center.

sum it up

 

If you want to sum it up that way, yes.

 

Here, we use the phrase 'sum it up' to briefly¹¹ describe something without details. Notice the following:

 

My problem, to sum it up, is money.

He summed up the presentation by asking us to work smarter, not harder.

1 stems   

n.（花草的）茎( stem的名词复数 )；词干；（高脚酒杯的）脚；烟斗柄v.遏制[阻止]（液体的流动等）( stem的第三人称单数 )；封堵；遏止

参考例句：

• The present wave of strikes stems from discontent among the lower-paid. 当前的罢工浪潮起因于低工资雇员们的不满情绪。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Her interest in flowers stems from her childhood in the country. 她对花卉的兴趣产生于她在乡下度过的童年时代。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 infrastructures   

n.基础设施( infrastructure的名词复数 )；基础结构；行政机构；秘密机构

参考例句：

• Public transportation termini and depots are important infrastructures for a city. 公交场站设施是城市重要的基础设施。 来自互联网
• The increasingly fast urbanization process requires more and more infrastructures. 我国城市化进程不断加快，对城市基础设施的需求也越来越大。 来自互联网

3 varied   

adj.多样的，多变化的

参考例句：

• The forms of art are many and varied.艺术的形式是多种多样的。
• The hotel has a varied programme of nightly entertainment.宾馆有各种晚间娱乐活动。

4 assessments   

n.评估( assessment的名词复数 )；评价；（应偿付金额的）估定；（为征税对财产所作的）估价

参考例句：

• He was shrewd in his personal assessments. 他总能对人作出精明的评价。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Surveys show about two-thirds use such assessments, while half employ personality tests. 调查表明，约有三分之二的公司采用了这种测评；而一半的公司则采用工作人员个人品质测试。 来自百科语句

5 implemented   

v.实现( implement的过去式和过去分词 )；执行；贯彻；使生效

参考例句：

• This agreement, if not implemented, is a mere scrap of paper. 这个协定如不执行只不过是一纸空文。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• The economy is in danger of collapse unless far-reaching reforms are implemented. 如果不实施影响深远的改革，经济就面临崩溃的危险。 来自辞典例句

6 tangible   

adj.有形的，可触摸的，确凿的，实际的

参考例句：

• The policy has not yet brought any tangible benefits.这项政策还没有带来任何实质性的好处。
• There is no tangible proof.没有确凿的证据。

7 vicinity   

n.邻近，附近地区

参考例句：

• He told us there was no hotel in the vicinity.他告诉我们说附近没有旅馆。
• There's a factory in the vicinity of the school.学校邻近有个工厂。

8 flip   

vt.快速翻动；轻抛；轻拍；n.轻抛；adj.轻浮的

参考例句：

• I had a quick flip through the book and it looked very interesting.我很快翻阅了一下那本书，看来似乎很有趣。
• Let's flip a coin to see who pays the bill.咱们来抛硬币决定谁付钱。

9 crises   

n. 危机；危险期

参考例句：

• Economic crises recur periodically. 经济危机周期性地发生。
• Great crises often call forth gifted leaders. 危急存亡之际常能产生天才的领袖。

10 outcome   

n.结果，出口，演变

参考例句：

• The outcome of the experiment is in the lap of the gods.实验结果尚难预料。
• The outcome of the war is hard to foretell.战争胜负难以预卜。

11 briefly   

adv.简单地，简短地

参考例句：

• I want to touch briefly on another aspect of the problem.我想简单地谈一下这个问题的另一方面。
• He was kidnapped and briefly detained by a terrorist group.他被一个恐怖组织绑架并短暂拘禁。