英文原版对话1000个:1149 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 stems from town planning, town or city planning. If you think about it, a city is a network of buildings and of transport infrastructures¹. 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 varied². 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 assessments³, 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 implemented⁴.

 

　　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 tangible⁵ 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 vicinity 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 flip⁶ it over and say promote the use of public transport, walking and cycling, that's what my aim is.

1 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

2 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。

3 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

4 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

5 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。

6 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。