2018年经济学人 自由交流:“城市拥堵”造成巨大经济损失(2)

 

Regrettably, clumping¹ leads to crowding: the more people an area houses, the greater the competition for its scarce resources,

遗憾的是，聚集带来了拥堵：一个区域住了越多的人，稀缺资源的竞争越激烈，

from seats at a hot new restaurant to space on public roadways.

从一家很火的新餐厅的座位到公路上的空间。

Each new arrival enhances a city’s magic but also adds to congestion².

每一位新成员提高了城市的魔力，但是也增加了拥堵。

Cities grow until costs outstrip³ benefits.

城市一直会增长，直到成本超过了收益。

New transport technologies are not useless.

新的运输科技不是无用的。

Mass-transit railways and highways allowed big cities to get bigger.

铁路和高速路公共交通让大城市成为更大的城市。

But their congestion-easing benefits inevitably⁴ proved temporary.

但是，它们缓解交通拥挤的好处证明是必然短暂的。

When the New York subway extended into northern Manhattan, it became practical to live far from the dirty, expensive, crowded downtown area,

当纽约的地铁延伸到曼哈顿北部时，住在远离肮脏、昂贵而又拥挤的市中心的地方，

while still enjoying access to the city’s social and economic benefits.

同时仍旧可以享受拥有城市社会经济福利，这样的生活就变的实际。

So the city’s population rose—a lot—leaving New Yorkers once more cheek by jowl.

因此，城市的人口增加了很多——使得纽约客更加密密匝匝地拥挤。

A post-war highway-building boom in America yielded explosive growth in city suburbs.

美国战后大量高速路的修建带来了城市郊区的爆发式增长。

Cities once again found their equilibrium⁵, however, as the suburban⁶ land rush led to road congestion, raising the cost of living far from employment centres.

城市再一次找到了均衡，然而，由于郊区土地热潮导致了道路拥堵，提高了住在远离就业中心的成本。

In a paper published in 2011, Gilles Duranton, of the University of Pennsylvania, and Matthew Turner, of Brown University, identified a “fundamental law of road congestion”:

在2011年发表的一篇论文中，宾夕法尼亚大学的GD和布朗大学的MT，提出了“城市拥堵的基本法则”：

namely, that building more highways does not alleviate⁷ congestion.

也就是，建更多的高速路并不会减轻拥堵。

Rather, it attracts more residents, leads to more driving by existing residents and boosts transport-intensive economic activity, until roads are once again crammed⁸.

而是会吸引更多的居民，导致更多现有居民开车出行，并且使得运输密集的经济活动增加，直到道路再次拥挤。

Driverless cars should cut traffic, other things being equal.

在其他条件相同的情况下，无人驾驶汽车可以减少交通拥挤。

Lower accident rates will mean fewer crash-related hold-ups, while AIs that can pilot cars more closely together will boost road capacity.

更低的事故率将意味着更少的因撞车带来的耽搁，同时，人工智能可以使驾驶汽车的间距更近，将提高道路运输量。

1 clumping   

v.（树、灌木、植物等的）丛、簇( clump的现在分词 )；（土、泥等）团；块；笨重的脚步声

参考例句：

• Wipe the wand off before the first coat to prevent clumping. 把睫毛棒刷干净，避免结块。 来自互联网
• Fighting gravitational clumping would take a wavelength of a few dozen light-years. 为了对抗重力造成的聚集，这些粒子的波长可能会长达好几十光年的距离。 来自互联网

2 congestion   

n.阻塞，消化不良

参考例句：

• The congestion in the city gets even worse during the summer.夏天城市交通阻塞尤为严重。
• Parking near the school causes severe traffic congestion.在学校附近泊车会引起严重的交通堵塞。

3 outstrip   

v.超过，跑过

参考例句：

• He can outstrip his friend both in sports and in studies.他能在体育和学习方面胜过他的朋友。
• It is possible for us to outstrip the advanced countries in the world.我们能超过世界上先进的国家。

4 inevitably   

adv.不可避免地；必然发生地

参考例句：

• In the way you go on,you are inevitably coming apart.照你们这样下去，毫无疑问是会散伙的。
• Technological changes will inevitably lead to unemployment.技术变革必然会导致失业。

5 equilibrium   

n.平衡，均衡，相称，均势，平静

参考例句：

• Change in the world around us disturbs our inner equilibrium.我们周围世界的变化扰乱了我们内心的平静。
• This is best expressed in the form of an equilibrium constant.这最好用平衡常数的形式来表示。

6 suburban   

adj.城郊的，在郊区的

参考例句：

• Suburban shopping centers were springing up all over America. 效区的商业中心在美国如雨后春笋般地兴起。
• There's a lot of good things about suburban living.郊区生活是有许多优点。

7 alleviate   

v.减轻，缓和，缓解(痛苦等)

参考例句：

• The doctor gave her an injection to alleviate the pain.医生给她注射以减轻疼痛。
• Nothing could alleviate his distress.什么都不能减轻他的痛苦。

8 crammed   

adj.塞满的，挤满的；大口地吃；快速贪婪地吃v.把…塞满；填入；临时抱佛脚( cram的过去式)

参考例句：

• He crammed eight people into his car. 他往他的车里硬塞进八个人。
• All the shelves were crammed with books. 所有的架子上都堆满了书。