美国国家公共电台 NPR Scooters: Sidewalk Nuisances, Or The Future Of Local Transportation?

 

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

Electric scooters are suddenly popping up on sidewalks in major cities around the country. They've become just about as popular as BJ Leiderman, who writes our theme music. Companies like Uber and Google have recently invested millions, hoping that scooters could be an answer to spotty public transit¹ and increasingly congested traffic. NPR's Jasmine Garsd reports.

JASMINE GARSD, BYLINE²: When Deputy City Attorney Adam Stephens walked into his office in Milwaukee one morning in late June, he found messages complaining about the Birds. He was not amused. He went for a walk.

ADAM STEPHENS: Within a couple of minutes, I found one parked on the sidewalk and was able to visually examine it and kind of figure out what it was.

GARSD: Bird is the name of an electric scooter company. Completely unannounced, it dropped off somewhere between 70 and a hundred rental³ scooters throughout Milwaukee, where it's illegal to ride them in public. Here's how it works. You download an app and locate a scooter near you. It's about a dollar to unlock and then 15 cents a minute. You can pretty much drop them off anywhere, and that's part of the problem. People have been leaving them all over the city sidewalks.

STEPHENS: Well, that causes problems because you have elderly people, you have people with disabilities, you have the visually impaired⁴ who rely on seeing eye dogs.

GARSD: In recent months, the #ScootersBehavingBadly popped up, featuring scooters around the country parked in pedestrian walkways, riders speeding through while wearing headphones. Milwaukee issued a cease-and-desist order, but Bird refused. The case is now in federal court. Things have gone sour in several cities, like San Francisco and St. Paul, where scooter companies have been kicked out. But in some cities, they've flourished, like in Washington, D.C., where I took a scooter from the brand Skip out for a spin.

It's kind of fun and a little terrifying. You get to weave through rush-hour traffic with a cool breeze blowing in your face. You don't arrive drenched⁵ in sweat.

I bumped into a fellow rider Octavion Carter. He uses these to get around Howard University and gives me some advice.

OCTAVION CARTER: Watch the ground because if you go over a crack or a pothole⁶, you might fall.

GARSD: It's happened to you?

CARTER: Yes. It happens to everybody (laughter).

GARSD: There are about 1,200 electric scooters for rent in Washington, D.C. These companies have a few months to prove their worth.

Hi. hey.

LUZ LAZO: How are you?

GARSD: Nice to meet you.

I meet Luz Lazo outside The Washington Post offices, where she reports on transportation. She says some people are annoyed at the trend. But also, in a city where public transportation is notoriously unreliable...

LAZO: I see a lot of people on the scooters now. And really, a lot of people who are quite frustrated⁷ with other modes of transportation might say I want to give this a try. Whether you know, it's something that is going to last or be a success, I mean, we still have to wait and see.

GARSD: Will the scooter, skateboard's goofy-looking cousin, be another fad⁸, just like Segways or hoverboards? Big tech doesn't think so. Silicon⁹ Valley is betting on the future of microtransportation. Uber recently invested in the scooter company Lime, and Lyft has announced it will soon be offering scooters on its app. As I ride back through D.C. on my rental with the wind in my face, one thing becomes clear. It's fun, but there's no way I'm doing this in winter.

Jasmine Garsd, NPR News, Washington.

1 transit   

n.经过，运输；vt.穿越，旋转；vi.越过

参考例句：

• His luggage was lost in transit.他的行李在运送中丢失。
• The canal can transit a total of 50 ships daily.这条运河每天能通过50条船。

2 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。

3 rental   

n.租赁，出租，出租业

参考例句：

• The yearly rental of her house is 2400 yuan.她这房子年租金是2400元。
• We can organise car rental from Chicago O'Hare Airport.我们可以安排提供从芝加哥奥黑尔机场出发的租车服务。

4 impaired   

adj.受损的；出毛病的；有（身体或智力）缺陷的v.损害，削弱( impair的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Much reading has impaired his vision. 大量读书损害了他的视力。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• His hearing is somewhat impaired. 他的听觉已受到一定程度的损害。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

5 drenched   

adj.湿透的；充满的v.使湿透( drench的过去式和过去分词 )；在某人（某物）上大量使用（某液体）

参考例句：

• We were caught in the storm and got drenched to the skin. 我们遇上了暴雨，淋得浑身透湿。
• The rain drenched us. 雨把我们淋得湿透。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 pothole   

n.坑，穴

参考例句：

• As the car sped over a pothole she lurched forward.车子飞驶过一个坑洼时，她身子猛地向前一倾。
• The young teacher knows every pothole in the 10-minute ride to school.这位年轻的老师熟悉这条往学校的10分钟路上的每一个坑洞。

7 frustrated   

adj.挫败的，失意的，泄气的v.使不成功( frustrate的过去式和过去分词 )；挫败；使受挫折；令人沮丧

参考例句：

• It's very easy to get frustrated in this job. 这个工作很容易令人懊恼。
• The bad weather frustrated all our hopes of going out. 恶劣的天气破坏了我们出行的愿望。 来自《简明英汉词典》

8 fad   

n.时尚；一时流行的狂热；一时的爱好

参考例句：

• His interest in photography is only a passing fad.他对摄影的兴趣只是一时的爱好罢了。
• A hot business opportunity is based on a long-term trend not a short-lived fad.一个热门的商机指的是长期的趋势而非一时的流行。

9 silicon   

n.硅(旧名矽)

参考例句：

• This company pioneered the use of silicon chip.这家公司开创了使用硅片的方法。
• A chip is a piece of silicon about the size of a postage stamp.芯片就是一枚邮票大小的硅片。