VOA慢速英语2012 THIS IS AMERICA - What Moves America? Some Transportation Trends in the United States

THIS IS AMERICA - What Moves America? Some Transportation Trends in the United States

FAITH LAPIDUS: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I'm Faith Lapidus.
CHRISTOPHER CRUISE: And I'm Christopher Cruise. This week on our program, we look at transportation in the United States.
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FAITH LAPIDUS: A federal safety agency wants to send a message to all drivers in the United States: keep your attention on the road. The National Transportation Safety Board has called for a nationwide ban on the use of portable electronic devices while driving. The proposal by the NTSB would not ban emergency uses or the use of what it calls "devices designed to support the driving task."
Across the country, different states have different levels of restrictions¹ on texting or talking on the phone while driving.
The safety board called for the nationwide ban last month after meeting to discuss a deadly accident. It happened in two thousand ten in Missouri. A pickup² truck drove into the back of a bigger truck that had slowed for road work. A school bus then struck the pickup truck, and a second school bus crashed into the first one.
Two streetcars move along Canal Street in New Orleans, Louisiana
Thirty-eight people were injured, but a fifteen-year-old student was killed. So was the nineteen-year-old driver of the pickup truck. NTSB investigators³ found that he had sent and received eleven text messages in the eleven minutes before the accident. He had received the last text right before the crash.
The government linked driver distraction⁴ to more than three thousand deaths in twenty-ten. Those represented about nine percent of all road deaths that year.
CHRISTOPHER CRUISE: The experts at the National Transportation Safety Board can make any recommendations they wish. But the Department of Transportation does not have to follow them. Aaron Bragman is an automotive analyst⁶ in Detroit, Michigan. He notes that the department has decided⁷ for now to further study the issue of distracted driving.
AARON BRAGMAN: "The NTSB's declaration is just basically a recommendation. It really doesn't have any kind of binding⁸ legal status it and really doesn't force anybody to do anything. The statement specifically from the NTSB has basically been almost universally rejected as simply illogical and impossible and something that really couldn't even be enforced.”
Mr. Bragman points out that automakers keep making it easier for drivers to do other things while they drive.
AARON BRAGMAN: "Increasingly we're seeing a lot of these new cars are already coming with hands-free devices. It's an increasing trend that we're seeing across the industry and it's not happening in just expensive cars. It's actually helping⁹ to improve sales.”
FAITH LAPIDUS: Cars and trucks are not the only vehicles where phones and other devices can cause distractions¹⁰. The NTSB points to accidents like a train crash in California in two thousand eight. One of the engineers was texting and ran through a red signal and into another train. That crash killed twenty-five people.
In two thousand nine, two airline pilots became distracted by their personal laptops during a flight. They flew one hundred sixty kilometers past the city where they were supposed to land.
In two thousand ten, two Hungarian tourists died in a boat crash on the Delaware River in Philadelphia. Investigators said a crew member on a tugboat had repeatedly been paying attention to a cell phone and laptop computer.
Twenty-twelve marks ten years since the NTSB handled its first investigation¹¹ involving distraction from a wireless¹² device. In two thousand two a new driver talking on the phone crossed into opposing traffic on a road in Maryland. The car turned over. Five people were killed.
CHRISTOPHER CRUISE: Almost everyone knows about the risks of distracted driving. But what about distracted walking -- people who get struck by cars or trains while wearing headphones? A new report says the United States had one hundred sixteen headphone-related pedestrian crashes from two thousand four to two thousand eleven.
Three times as many of these happened in the last two years as in the first two years. The researchers say the increase over time closely follows the rise in popularity of MP3 music players and other devices that use headphones.
Seventy percent of the crashes killed the pedestrian. More than two-thirds of them were male and under the age of thirty. The largest number were age fifteen to twenty-four.
The operators of almost a third of the vehicles reported having sounded their horn to warn the pedestrian. More than half of the accidents involved trains.
Dr. Richard Lichenstein led the study by medical researchers at the University of Maryland. The findings appear in the journal Injury Prevention.
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FAITH LAPIDUS: Demand for smaller cars continues to redefine the auto⁵ industry in the United States. That demand is bringing jobs back to an industry that lost tens of thousands of workers in the last ten years.
But it does not help some existing workers, like Nicole Current.
NICOLE CURRENT: "I make truck axles, so as the auto industry tries to get away from the larger size vehicles, and tries to get to more fuel efficient, more economical vehicles, and gas prices being where they are with what product we make, it makes it extremely difficult when in the actual economy, people aren't buying trucks."
The changes in what people are buying is creating jobs in the so-called green car industry and eliminating others, like Ms. Current's job. She has worked on an assembly line in Detroit, Michigan, for fifteen years. She hopes to find one of those new jobs.
Auto analyst Aaron Bragman says car sales have slowly been increasing over the last few months in the United States. This, he says, is mainly because old cars need to be replaced.
AARON BRAGMAN: "The American vehicle fleet, which is the total sum of all the vehicles on the road, is actually the oldest it's ever been. It's over ten years old right now. People simply have to get a new one because the old ones are starting to wear out.”
But to save money, he says, most people replace their old car with a used car instead of a truly new one.
Mr. Bragman says when Americans shop for a car, they are most concerned about fuel economy. But that does not necessarily mean they are looking for hybrids¹⁴, which use gasoline and electric power, like the Toyota Prius.
AARON BRAGMAN: "Really what we're seeing is not so much people specifically looking for hybrid¹³ cars. Although fuel economy does remain very important to new buyers, they're realizing that some of the new gasoline cars [are] almost approaching hybrid levels of fuel economy. So you don't even necessarily need to spend the extra money for a hybrid vehicle in order to get really, really decent fuel economy.”
CHRISTOPHER CRUISE:Still, Greg Thome at Toyota says the Prius remains¹⁵ one of his company's most popular models.
GREG THOME: "The Prius has done really well. We expect our sales this year to grow incrementally¹⁶ as far as Prius is concerned, because we are growing from one Prius model to a family of four vehicles."
Toyota launched the smaller Prius C this month at the two thousand twelve North American International Auto Show in Detroit. Mr. Thome says the smaller model is an answer to changes in demand after the Great Recession.
GREG THOME: "The recession certainly hit all models. Now we're starting to see a lot of people come back to the market, including for new technology like hybrids and so forth¹⁷."
Almost every manufacturer at this year's Detroit Auto Show is now marketing¹⁸ more fuel-efficient models.
You can watch a video about some of the new "green" cars at voanews.cn.
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FAITH LAPIDUS: Streetcars have been carrying people through New Orleans for more than one hundred fifty years. Anthony Falls has been driving streetcars for ten of those years and still enjoys the job.
ANTHONY FALLS: "First of all, this is one of the oldest rail lines in the world. And second of all, it's about being part of history. Because at one time, they didn't have people of color driving street cars, so I think of that as a big part of my job."
Streetcars carry passengers along New Orleans' famous St. Charles Avenue and other streets. People ride cars built in the nineteen twenties.
FEMALE PASSENGER: "I've been riding streetcars ever since I started high school. Sometimes we would go out to lunch, jump on a streetcar. It's convenient and it's cheap."
MALE PASSENGER: "The reason why I like it? I don't know, it's a piece of history. They have these old cars, and they respect them, and they keep them running. You can ride down here and be part of the living history of New Orleans."
The city in Louisiana is one of about twenty American cities that are expanding or developing streetcar systems. Streetcars are usually powered by overhead lines that carry electricity. Dominic Moncada from the Regional Transit¹⁹ Authority in New Orleans explains why more cities are turning to streetcars.
DOMINIC MONCADA: "With gas prices constantly increasing, a lot of public transit agencies are trying to find ways to modernize²⁰ their system -- anything that has a better cost benefit for an agency."
New Orleans is laying down new tracks to expand its system. Other cities including San Francisco, California and Portland, Oregon, are also expanding their systems. In Portland, a streetcar line opened in two thousand one. It covers six-and-a-half kilometers and has about twelve thousand daily riders. A second line is set to open this year.
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CHRISTOPHER CRUISE:Do you ride a bike to work or to get around town? Local officials in Washington, DC, wish more people would. The city government in the District of Columbia started the Bikeshare program in September of two thousand ten. Today, there are more than one hundred thirty stations around the city where members can get or return a bike. In all, the nation's capital and neighboring Arlington, Virginia, have more than one thousand Bikeshare bicycles.
FEMALE RIDER: "I love it. I use it every single day to get to school."
People can buy memberships for a single day, three days, one month or a full year. Chris Holben is the project director of Washington's Capital Bikeshare program.
CHRIS HOLBEN: "We have about twenty thousand annual members who can walk up take a bike out. We also had about ninety thousand visitors use our bikes. Those were tourists or people here for the day".
People used the bikes for one million rides during the last year. Mr. Holben says this works out to fifty thousand fewer automobile²¹ trips. A survey showed that five percent of members would have used cars had bikes not been available.
In addition to Arlington, two other Washington suburbs have agreed to join the network: Montgomery County, Maryland, and Alexandria, Virginia. The program is expected to grow to almost three hundred stations and almost three thousand bikes by the end of this year.
You can watch a video about Capital Bikeshare at voanews.cn.
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FAITH LAPIDUS: Our program was written and produced by Brianna Blake, with reporting by Kane Farabaugh, Selah Hennessy and Muhammad Atif. I'm Faith Lapidus.
CHRISTOPHER CRUISE: And I'm Christopher Cruise. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English.

1 restrictions   

约束( restriction的名词复数 )； 管制； 制约因素； 带限制性的条件（或规则）

参考例句：

• I found the restrictions irksome. 我对那些限制感到很烦。
• a snaggle of restrictions 杂乱无章的种种限制

2 pickup   

n.拾起，获得

参考例句：

• I would love to trade this car for a pickup truck.我愿意用这辆汽车换一辆小型轻便卡车。||The luck guy is a choice pickup for the girls.那位幸运的男孩是女孩子们想勾搭上的人。

3 investigators   

n.调查者，审查者( investigator的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• This memo could be the smoking gun that investigators have been looking for. 这份备忘录可能是调查人员一直在寻找的证据。
• The team consisted of six investigators and two secretaries. 这个团队由六个调查人员和两个秘书组成。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 distraction   

n.精神涣散，精神不集中，消遣，娱乐

参考例句：

• Total concentration is required with no distractions.要全神贯注，不能有丝毫分神。
• Their national distraction is going to the disco.他们的全民消遣就是去蹦迪。

5 auto   

n.(=automobile)(口语)汽车

参考例句：

• Don't park your auto here.别把你的汽车停在这儿。
• The auto industry has brought many people to Detroit.汽车工业把许多人吸引到了底特律。

6 analyst   

n.分析家，化验员；心理分析学家

参考例句：

• What can you contribute to the position of a market analyst?你有什么技能可有助于市场分析员的职务？
• The analyst is required to interpolate values between standards.分析人员需要在这些标准中插入一些值。

7 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

8 binding   

有约束力的，有效的，应遵守的

参考例句：

• The contract was not signed and has no binding force. 合同没有签署因而没有约束力。
• Both sides have agreed that the arbitration will be binding. 双方都赞同仲裁具有约束力。

9 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

10 distractions   

n.使人分心的事[人]( distraction的名词复数 )；娱乐，消遣；心烦意乱；精神错乱

参考例句：

• I find it hard to work at home because there are too many distractions. 我发觉在家里工作很难，因为使人分心的事太多。
• There are too many distractions here to work properly. 这里叫人分心的事太多，使人无法好好工作。 来自《简明英汉词典》

11 investigation   

n.调查，调查研究

参考例句：

• In an investigation,a new fact became known, which told against him.在调查中新发现了一件对他不利的事实。
• He drew the conclusion by building on his own investigation.他根据自己的调查研究作出结论。

12 wireless   

adj.无线的；n.无线电

参考例句：

• There are a lot of wireless links in a radio.收音机里有许多无线电线路。
• Wireless messages tell us that the ship was sinking.无线电报告知我们那艘船正在下沉。

13 hybrid   

n.(动，植）杂种，混合物

参考例句：

• That is a hybrid perpetual rose.那是一株杂交的四季开花的蔷薇。
• The hybrid was tall,handsome,and intelligent.那混血儿高大、英俊、又聪明。

14 hybrids   

n.杂交生成的生物体( hybrid的名词复数 )；杂交植物（或动物）；杂种；（不同事物的）混合物

参考例句：

• All these brightly coloured hybrids are so lovely in the garden. 花园里所有这些色彩鲜艳的杂交花真美丽。 来自辞典例句
• The notion that interspecific hybrids are rare is ill-founded. 有一种看法认为种间杂种是罕见的，这种看法是无根据的。 来自辞典例句

15 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

16 incrementally   

adv.逐渐地

参考例句：

• Incrementally update the shared dimensions used in this cube. 增量更新此多维数据集中使用的共享维度。 来自互联网
• Grand goals are inspiring, but be sure to approach them incrementally. 辉煌的目标令人鼓舞，但一定要逐步实现。 来自互联网

17 forth   

adv.向前；向外，往外

参考例句：

• The wind moved the trees gently back and forth.风吹得树轻轻地来回摇晃。
• He gave forth a series of works in rapid succession.他很快连续发表了一系列的作品。

18 marketing   

n.行销，在市场的买卖，买东西

参考例句：

• They are developing marketing network.他们正在发展销售网络。
• He often goes marketing.他经常去市场做生意。

19 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。

20 modernize   

vt.使现代化，使适应现代的需要

参考例句：

• It was their manifest failure to modernize the country's industries.他们使国家进行工业现代化，明显失败了。
• There is a pressing need to modernise our electoral system.我们的选举制度迫切需要现代化。

21 automobile   

n.汽车，机动车

参考例句：

• He is repairing the brake lever of an automobile.他正在修理汽车的刹车杆。
• The automobile slowed down to go around the curves in the road.汽车在路上转弯时放慢了速度。