赫尔辛基畅想少车未来

⊙ By Steve Curwood

翻译：思苇

赫尔辛基畅想少车未来

⊙ By Steve Curwood

翻译：思苇

HELSINKI IMAGINES A CAR-LESS FUTURE

在人口密集的大都市，交通问题是城市规划绕不过的一道坎儿。近年来，与世界其他城市一样面临堵车困扰的芬兰首都赫尔辛基正在筹建一个全新的运输服务系统，希望在未来几年内有效缓解交通压力，来了解一下吧！

听力指南针

这篇采访生词不多，句式不难，一问一答条理清晰，专家的解答简单易懂，唯一的难点在于专家的英语带有明显的欧洲口音。这种源于生活的真实英语对大家的耳朵是个很好的训练——先试试不看文字只听声音，你能听懂多少呢？

Host:Helsinki is growing fast. And city planners trying to prepare for that growth realized they needed a better way for people to move around. The public1)transitsystem in Finland’s capital city is already overcrowded, and there isn’t the money to keep2)investingin new roads and highways. So, they turned to the novel idea of treating mobility as a service, and using a mix of all3)modesof transport that would take the job of figuring out how to get from point A to point B out of users hands. Ville Lehmuskoski is the Director of Transport and Traffic Planning for Helsinki.

If I’m a resident of a future Helsinki, where this newly-designed transportation system is in place, how do I get from point A to point B?

Ville:In the current mobility system, people own their cars. They just have their car or two cars that their family has. But in your life, you have several kind of different situations, and if you use mobility-as-a-service, for every trip you get just the kind of car that you need, that you want: at some point you need your4)Toyota Corolla; at some point you would like to have a5)van; at some point you would like to have some sport car, Ferrari or something like that. You also have the possibility to take public transport, take bikes, take also different kind of bikes…always take the best option. And also important is that you don’t have to invest. The investment cost is very big when we talk about cars. You just pay by use.

Host:So, how does this work? I pick up the phone and call my service provider, or do I go online?

Ville:It’s a mobile phone application or

1) transit [5trænsIt] n. 运输

2) invest [In5vest] v. 投资，名词形式为investment。

3) mode [məʊd] n. 方式

4) Toyota Corolla 卡罗拉轿车，日本丰田公司在1966年推出的紧凑型小轿车，原中文名为“花冠”，从2006年的第十代车型开始将其中文名改为“卡罗拉”。

5) van [væn] n. 厢式货车，面包车computer application.

Host:What about the cost of all this? How much is it gonna cost to really build out and6)maintaina system like this?

Ville:The7)bulkof the system, actually, it’s not any rocket-science software, so it will not be a big cost. But when we talk about economical efficiency of transportation system, we need to remember that—at least in Finland, that8)passenger carsare not in use 96 or 97% of the time. The9)capitalis tied up to the car, and that’s very ineffective use of capital. That’s lazy money, I would say. When there is not that big need for capital in cars, it makes the system much more effective, in terms of efficiency of both public money and private money.

Host:So, your expectation, then, is that this is going to be cheaper for everyone once it’s working.

Ville:Yes. This is going to be cheaper for the private person, the person that uses the system, and it will also be cheaper for the society.

Host:Let’s fast-forward, say, a decade. What do you imagine the streets of Helsinki would look like?

Ville:In the future, there’s a lot of parking10)availablebecause the cars are moving. Those cars that are needed, they take one passenger to place A to place B. Then they continue. So the amount of cars is maybe half of today, or even less. There’s much space in the city, there are lots more cyclists, lots more public transport users, and there are happy car users.

6) maintain [meIn5teIn] v. 维护，保养，维修

7) bulk [bʌlk] n. 大部分，大半

8) passenger car 轿车，（9座以下的）小客车

9) capital [5kæpIt(ə)l] n. 资本，资金

10) available [ə5veIləb(ə)l] adj. 可得到的，可用的

The bulk of the system, actually, it’s not any rocket-science software, so it will not be a big cost.

我们在日常对话中有时听到别人说rocket science——可别想当然地以为他们在讨论火箭科学这么“高大上”的问题哦！这个词组是比喻一门难懂的学问、一些要有数学天分才能明白的问题，或者错综复杂、高深莫测的事情。人们通常将这个词组用在否定句里，如：Come on, don’t give me that look. It’s not exactlyrocket science. （得了，别给我摆臭脸，这又不是什么复杂的事情。）

与此相关的另外一个词组是rocket scientist，本义是“火箭科学家”，也可以用来形容一些特别聪明的人。

主持人：赫尔辛基发展得很快。想为此做好准备的城市规划专家发现，他们需要给市民设计一个更好的出行方式。而芬兰首都的公共交通系统早已人满为患，也没有更多资金可以投资建设新的道路与公路。于是他们想出一个标新立异的点子——“移动即服务”，通过多种交通工具的综合运用，让市民从此摆脱如何从甲地去到乙地的烦恼。维莱·莱赫穆斯科斯基是赫尔辛基交通运输规划局局长。

假设我是未来的赫尔辛基居民，等这个全新设计的交通系统投入运营以后，我要怎样从甲地去到乙地呢？

维莱：在目前的交通系统中，很多人都有车，本人或者家里会有一两辆私家车。不过呢，你在生活中会遇到各种不同的情况，如果你是“移动即服务”的用户，你在每趟行程中就可以开到自己恰好需要或者想用的车型：比如有时候你需要一辆丰田卡罗拉，有时候你需要找辆面包车，有时候你又想开开跑车，比如法拉利什么的。你还可以选择公共交通工具，可以骑单车，可以选择各种不同款式的单车……你总能找到最适合自己的选择。另外还有同样重要的一点，你无须在这方面花什么钱。谈到养车，那开销可不是个小数目。而参加“移动即服务”，你只要每次用完付费就可以了。

主持人：这项服务是怎么操作的呢？我是拿起电话打给服务供应商，还是在线申请？

维莱：手机申请或者在线申请都可以。

主持人：整个系统要花多少钱？要真正建成这样一个系统并进行日常维护，这个开销有多大呢？

维莱：这个系统的主体部分其实并不是什么复杂难懂的软件，所以费用不会太高。不过，谈到交通系统的经济效率，我们需要记住——至少在芬兰这里，许多小轿车有96%或97%的时间是闲置不用的。资金被绑定在车子上，这是一种资金使用率很低的做法。在我看来，这些都是闲置资金。如果人们在车子上的投入需求降低了，整个交通系统就会运作得更有效率，无论从公共资金还是个人财产的角度来说都是如此。

主持人：所以按照你的预期，这项服务一旦投入使用，每个人都能省下一笔钱。

维莱：没错。无论是对个人来说，对使用这个系统的用户来说，还是对整个社会来说，交通都会变得更加便宜。

主持人：让我们来展望一下吧——比如说十年以后，你觉得到时候赫尔辛基的路况会是怎样的呢？维莱：将来会有很多停车位，因为车子总在路上跑。需要派上用场的小车会将乘客从甲地送往乙地，然后继续上路。所以未来的车辆总数可能会比现在少一半，甚至更少。城里会有更多空间，会有更多人骑单车或者使用公共交通工具，开车一族也会更高兴。