第1自然段

A new study conducted for the World Bank by Murdoch University’s Institute for Science and Technology Policy (ISTP) has demonstrated that public transport is more efficient than cars. The study compared the proportion of wealth poured into transport by thirty-seven cities around the world. This included both the public and private costs of building, maintaining and using a transport system.

    第一段：由澳大利亚墨多克大学科学与技术政策研究所（ISTP）为世界银行进行的一项新研究表明，公共交通比私家车更高效。该研究比较了全球37个城市在交通领域的财富投入比例，包括建设、维护和使用交通系统的公共和私人成本。

第2自然段

The study found that the Western Australian city of Perth is a good example of a city with minimal public transport. As a result, 17% of its wealth went into transport costs. Some European and Asian cities, on the other hand, spent as little as 5%. Professor Peter Newman, ISTP Director, pointed out that these more efficient cities were able to put the difference into attracting industry and jobs or creating a better place to live.

第二段：该研究发现，西澳大利亚州的珀斯是一个公共交通较少的城市的典型例子。结果导致该市17%的财富被用于交通成本。而一些欧洲和亚洲的城市只花费了5%左右。ISTP主任彼得·纽曼教授指出，这些更高效的城市能够将差异用于吸引产业和就业机会，或者创造更好的生活环境。

第3自然段

According to Professor Newman, the larger Australian city of Melbourne is a rather unusual city in this sort of comparison. He describes it as two cities: ‘A European city surrounded by a car-dependent one’. Melbourne’s large tram network has made car use in the inner city much lower, but the outer suburbs have the same car-based structure as most other Australian cities. The explosion in demand for accommodation in the inner suburbs of Melbourne suggests a recent change in many people’s preferences as to where they live.

第三段：根据纽曼教授的说法，在这种比较中，较大的澳大利亚城市墨尔本是一个相当特殊的城市。他将其描述为“一座被依赖汽车的城市所包围的欧洲风格城市”。墨尔本庞大的有轨电车网络使得市区内的汽车使用率较低，但外围郊区的汽车依赖结构与大多数澳大利亚其他城市相同。近年来，墨尔本市内郊区的住房需求激增，这表明许多人对居住地的偏好发生了变化。

第4自然段

Newman says this is a new, broader way of considering public transport issues. In the past, the case for public transport has been made on the basis of environmental and social justice considerations rather than economics. Newman, however, believes the study demonstrates that ‘the auto-dependent city model is inefficient and grossly inadequate in economic as well as environmental terms’.

第四段：纽曼教授表示，这是一种新的、更广泛地考虑公共交通问题的方式。过去，公共交通被提出的理由是基于环境和社会公正考虑，而不是经济考虑。纽曼教授认为，该研究证明了“依赖汽车的城市模式在经济和环境方面都是低效和严重不足的”。

第5自然段

Bicycle use was not included in the study but Newman noted that the two most ‘bicycle friendly’ cities considered – Amsterdam and Copenhagen – were very efficient, even though their public transport systems were ‘reasonable but not special’.

第五段：该研究并未包括自行车使用，但纽曼指出，被认为最“自行车友好”的两个城市——阿姆斯特丹和哥本哈根——即使它们的公共交通系统“普通而并非特别”，仍然非常高效。

第6自然段

It is common for supporters of road networks to reject the models of cities with good public transport by arguing that such systems would not work in their particular city. One objection is climate. Some people say their city could not make more use of public transport because it is either too hot or too cold. Newman rejects this, pointing out that public transport has been successful in both Toronto and Singapore and, in fact, he has checked the use of cars against climate and found ‘zero correlation’.

第六段：支持道路网络的人常常以该类城市模式在他们所在城市无法实现的论据来反驳公共交通系统。其中一个反对意见是气候因素。有些人说他们所在的城市由于气候要么太热要么太冷，无法更多地利用公共交通。纽曼对此进行了反驳，指出公共交通在多伦多和新加坡都取得了成功，并且实际上他已经检查过汽车使用情况与气候之间的关系，并发现“没有任何相关性”。

第7自然段

When it comes to other physical features, road lobbies are on stronger ground. For example, Newman accepts it would be hard for a city as hilly as Auckland to develop a really good rail network. However, he points out that both Hong Kong and Zürich have managed to make a success of their rail systems, heavy and light respectively, though there are few cities in the world as hilly.

第七段：在其他地理特征方面，支持道路建设的利益集团更具说服力。例如，纽曼承认像奥克兰这样山崎起伏的城市很难发展出一个真正好的铁路网络。然而，他指出，香港和苏黎世都成功地建立了自己的铁路系统，重型和轻型铁路系统，尽管世界上几乎没有其他像这两座城市一样有大量山区的城市。

第8自然段/段落A

In fact, Newman believes the main reason for adopting one sort of transport over another is politics: ‘The more democratic the process, the more public transport is favored.’ He considers Portland, Oregon, a perfect example of this. Some years ago, federal money was granted to build a new road. However, local pressure groups forced a referendum over whether to spend the money on light rail instead. The rail proposal won and the railway worked spectacularly well. In the years that have followed, more and more rail systems have been put in, dramatically changing the nature of the city. Newman notes that Portland has about the same population as Perth and had a similar population density at the time.

第八段/第A段：事实上，纽曼认为选择一种交通方式而不是另一种的主要原因是政治因素：“进程越民主，就越偏爱公共交通。”他认为俄勒冈州波特兰是一个完美的例子。几年前，联邦资金被授予用于建设新道路。然而，当地压力团体强制进行了一次关于是否把这笔钱用于轻轨的全民投票。轻轨方案获胜，并且铁路系统运行得非常成功。在随后的几年里，越来越多的铁路系统被建立起来，从根本上改变了城市的面貌。纽曼指出，波特兰的人口与珀斯大致相同，当时人口密度也相似。

第9自然段/段落B

In the UK, travel times to work had been stable for at least six centuries, with people avoiding situations that required them to spend more than half an hour travelling to work. Trains and cars initially allowed people to live at greater distances without taking longer to reach their destination. However, public infrastructure did not keep pace with urban sprawl, causing massive congestion problems which now make commuting times far higher.

第九段/第B段：在英国，至少六个世纪以来，通勤时间一直保持稳定，人们避免需要花费超过半小时通勤。火车和汽车最初使人们可以住在更远的地方而不需要花更长时间到达目的地。然而，公共基础设施没有跟上城市扩张的步伐，导致了严重的拥堵问题，使通勤时间大大增加。

第10自然段/段落C

There is a widespread belief that increasing wealth encourages people to live farther out where cars are the only viable transport. The example of European cities refutes that. They are often wealthier than their American counterparts but have not generated the same level of car use. In Stockholm, car use has actually fallen in recent years as the city has become larger and wealthier. A new study makes this point even more starkly. Developing cities in Asia, such as Jakarta and Bangkok, make more use of the car than wealthy Asian cities such as Tokyo and Singapore. In cities that developed later, the World Bank and Asian Development Bank discouraged the building of public transport and people have been forced to rely on cars -creating the massive traffic jams that characterize those cities.

第十段/第C段：普遍存在一种观念，即日益增长的财富会鼓励人们居住在距离更远、只能靠汽车作为唯一交通工具的地方。欧洲城市的例子证明了这一点。这些城市往往比美国的同类城市更富有，但没有产生相同水平的汽车使用率。在斯德哥尔摩，随着城市的扩大和富裕程度的增加，汽车使用率实际上有所下降。一项新研究更加显著地证明了这一点。亚洲的一些发展中城市，如雅加达和曼谷，对汽车的依赖程度高于东京和新加坡等富裕亚洲城市。在后来发展起来的城市中，世界银行和亚洲开发银行不鼓励建设公共交通系统，人们被迫依赖汽车，从而导致了这些城市的交通拥堵问题。

第11自然段/段落D

Newman believes one of the best studies on how cities built for cars might be converted to rail use is The Urban Village report, which used Melbourne as an example. It found that pushing everyone into the city centre was not the best approach. Instead, the proposal advocated the creation of urban villages at hundreds of sites, mostly around railway stations.

第十一段/第D段：纽曼认为，关于如何将面向汽车建设的城市转变为轨道交通使用的最好研究之一是《城市村落报告》，该报告以墨尔本为例。该报告指出，把每个人都推到市中心并不是最佳方法。相反，该提案主张在数百个地点创建城市村落，这些地点大多围绕铁路站。

第12自然段/段落E

It was once assumed that improvements in telecommunications would lead to more dispersal in the population as people were no longer forced into cities. However, the ISTP team’s research demonstrates that the population and job density of cities rose or remained constant in the 1980s after decades of decline. The explanation for this seems to be that it is valuable to place people working in related fields together. ‘The new world will largely depend on human creativity, and creativity flourishes where people come together face-to-face.’