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(单词翻译:双击或拖选)
Liz Parle, 24, a Birmingham-born café owner, cannot drive. “I did try to learn, but I failed my test a few times,” Parle told the Guardian1.
24岁的丽兹?帕尔乐是土生土长的伯明翰人，经营着一家咖啡馆，不会开车的她告诉《卫报》记者：“我曾经尝试学习开车，但是几次考试都没通过。”
Then she moved to London, where running a car can be a nightmare, so now she cycles everywhere.
随后她移居伦敦，在那里开车就如同噩梦一般，所以她现在到哪儿都骑着自行车。
Parle is by no means atypical. According to the Guardian, in the UK, the percentage of 17- to 20-year-olds with driving licenses2 fell from 48 percent in the early 1990s to 35 percent last year.
帕尔乐绝不是个特例。根据《卫报》的报道， 在英国，17-20岁年龄段持有驾照的人口比例从上世界90年代初期的48%缩减到去年的35%。
Meanwhile, road traffic figures for cars and taxis, which have risen more or less every year since 1949, have continued to fall since 2007.
同时，自1949年之后每年或多或少都在增长的道路交通数据也从2007年以后持续下降。
Motoring groups put it down to oil prices and the economy. Others offer a more fundamental explanation: the golden age of motoring is over.
汽车公司们将一切归因于油价和经济状况。另一些人则给出了最根本的解释：汽车的黄金时代终结了。
“The way we run cars is changing fast,” Tim Pollard, associate editor at Car magazine, told the Telegraph, “Car manufacturers are worried that younger people in particular don’t aspire3 to own cars like we used to in the 70s, 80s, or even the 90s. Designers commonly say that teenagers today aspire to own the latest smart phone more than a car.”
“我们开车的方式正在飞速转变中，”《汽车杂志》副主编蒂姆?珀拉德告诉《每日电讯报》记者说，“汽车制造商尤其担心现在的年轻人不会再像七八十年代甚至九十年代时我们那样，渴望拥有一辆汽车。设计师普遍认同当今的青少年更渴望拥有最新款智能手机而不是一辆汽车。”
As technology companies try to keep pace with the iPhone generation, Pollard says carmakers are also coming to terms with less possessive buyers. This has led to a different kind of ownership and the increase of rental4 schemes.
珀拉德表示，就像科技公司设法去适应iPhone 一代一样，，汽车厂商也不得不接受购车客户减少这一事实。这已经催生了一种新的车辆所有权，并导致租车公司数量的增长。
“Peugeot, for instance, has launched a European project called Mu,” Pollard said. “You become a member and can then rent whichever Peugeot best suits your mobility5 needs that day.”
“例如法国标致汽车在欧洲启动了一个名为Mu的项目，” 珀拉德说道。“只要成为会员，你便可以租到最适合你驾驶需求的标致汽车了。”
That means you can borrow a van to move house at the weekend. Then get into a 308 for the school run, Monday to Friday. Then hop6 into an electric car to scoot silently around town. Then borrow a Peugeot bicycle to cycle to the pub in the evening.
那就意味着你可以在周末租借一辆货车来搬家，然后周一至周五驾驶标志308汽车去上学。接下来坐进一辆电动汽车在镇上到处漫游，再然后租一辆标志自行车，夜晚时骑车去酒吧。
“It’s an attempt to second-guess how we’ll run cars in the future, and a pilot scheme at present, but you can do this today in London. Other car manufacturers are studying similar ideas,” Pollard said.
“尽管我们试图预测人类未来的驾车方式，这在当前还只是一个试验性计划，但在现在的伦敦你就可以做。其他的汽车制造商也都在研究类似的构想。” 珀拉德说道。
David Metz is a visiting professor at the University College London’s Center for Transport Studies. He said underpinning7 all these innovations and ideas is what he sees as a major behavioral shift among the generation of “digital natives”.
大卫?麦兹是伦敦大学学院交通运输研究中心的客座教授。他表示，在自己看来，巩固这些创新和构想正是发生在“数码人一代”身上的重大行为转变。
“They don’t care about owning things. Possession is a burden, and a car is a big investment for most people–not just the vehicle, but the permits, the parking space,” he told the Guardian.
“他们不在乎拥有一些东西。占有是一种负担，而汽车对于多数人来说是一项大投资—不仅仅是汽车本身，还存在牌照和停车位问题。”他告诉《卫报》记者。
And a survey conducted by the British Department of Transport earlier this year supports what Metz said. The survey showed that the proportion of men in their 30s who drive has remained steady, while twentysomethings appear to be putting off getting behind the wheel until it’s absolutely necessary.
今年年初英国交通部所做的一项调查证实了麦兹的观点。调查显示30来岁的开车男士人数比例保持稳定，然而二十多岁的年轻人似乎决定将开车这一问题推迟延后，除非是万不得已。
“It’s not just about the cost,” Metz said. “Other factors that are more speculative8 are that there are more people in higher education, which typically takes place in urban centers where the car isn’t part of the mix. Then people stay on in these urban centers.”
“这不只是花费问题，”麦兹说道。“更值得深思的因素则是越来越多的人接受高等教育，同时他们读书的地点一般都在市中心，而汽车跟这两者都不搭边。人们就选择继续呆在市中心。”
Metz added there’s nothing wrong with wanting a little house in the country, and a car to get you to and from it. Yet there is something reckless in restricting new buildings to a particular form of transport, especially if that form of transport shows signs of decline.
麦兹还表示，想拥有一座乡间小屋和一辆可以载你出入的车辆，这本没什么问题。但是将新房子限制于一种特殊交通形式中，这就多少有些草率了，特别是这种交通方式正显示出减退的趋势。
“There’s this idea of a green metropolis9, where land values are high so there’s less space to heat, and where electric vehicles are viable10, because the trips taken are shorter,” Metz said.
“这是一个关于绿色都市的理念。那里地值高昂因此停车空间有限，而又因为路程较短，所以驾驶电动汽车在那里是切实可行的。”麦兹说道。
“If we’re living in a world that is urbanizing globally, this is worth considering.”
“如果我们生活在一个全球城市化的世界里，这个问题值得思考。”
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1
guardian
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| n.监护人；守卫者，保护者 | |
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2
licenses
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| n.执照( license的名词复数 )v.批准，许可，颁发执照( license的第三人称单数 ) | |
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3
aspire
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| vi.(to，after)渴望，追求，有志于 | |
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4
rental
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| n.租赁，出租，出租业 | |
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5
mobility
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| n.可动性，变动性，情感不定 | |
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6
hop
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| n.单脚跳，跳跃；vi.单脚跳，跳跃；着手做某事；vt.跳跃，跃过 | |
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7
underpinning
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| n.基础材料；基础结构；（学说、理论等的）基础；（人的）腿v.用砖石结构等从下面支撑（墙等）( underpin的现在分词 )；加固（墙等）的基础；为（论据、主张等）打下基础；加强 | |
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speculative
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| adj.思索性的，暝想性的，推理的 | |
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metropolis
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| n.首府；大城市 | |
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viable
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| adj.可行的，切实可行的，能活下去的 | |
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