《经济学人》双语：为什么越来越多的年轻人不愿开车？(Part 1)

原文标题：
The future of the car
Driven away
Around the world, the young seem to be falling out of love with cars
汽车的未来
渐行渐远
世界各地的年轻人似乎对汽车失去了兴趣

That could have big political ramifications
这可能会产生一些重大的政治影响

[Paragraph 1]
FOR ADAH CRANDALL, a high-school student in Portland, Oregon, a daily annoyance is family members asking when she is going to learn to drive.
对于家住俄勒冈州波特兰市的高中生阿达.克兰德尔来说，每天烦恼的事情就是要面对家人催促学车。

[Paragraph 2]
Few technologies defined the 20th century more than the car. On the surface, the love affair with the personal automobile continues unabated into this century.
如果用一个词描述20世纪，莫过于“汽车”一词。从表面上看，21世纪人们对私家车的热爱丝毫未减。

The number of drivers on the world’s roads continues to rise almost everywhere. The distance driven by American motorists hit a new peak last year, according to data from the Federal Highway Administration.
世界各地汽车和司机的数量持续增加。美国联邦公路管理局的数据表明，去年美国汽车行驶路程创新高。

But there are hints that this is changing. People like Ms Crandall show why.
但有迹象表明，汽车情况正在发生变化。克兰德尔等年轻人揭示了原因所在。

Getting a driving licence was once a nearly universal rite of passage into adulthood. Now it is something that a growing minority of young people either ignore or actively oppose, into their 20s and beyond.
拿驾照曾经是步入成年的必经过程。现在，越来越多20几岁的年轻人忽视驾照或明确表示不想考驾照，虽然从数量上说，他们仍是少数。

[Paragraph 3]
That, in turn, is starting to create more support for a anti-car policies being passed in cities around the world.
反过来，这也促进了世界各地城市“禁车政策”的通过。

From New York to Norway, a growing number of cities and local politicians are passing anti-car laws, ripping out parking spaces, blocking off roads and changing planning rules to favour pedestrians over drivers.
从纽约到挪威，越来越多的城市和政客们正在通过《禁车法》，如拆除停车位，封锁道路，更改城市规划和制度，以利于行人而非司机。

[Paragraph 4]
Campaigners detect a sea change.
活动人士察觉到了巨大变化。

Even a few years ago “there was a sense that we were the weirdos,” says Doug Gordon, a founder of “The War on Cars”, a podcast based in New York.
纽约播客《汽车之战》的创始人道格·戈说：几年前，“有一种感觉，我们是人们眼中的怪人。”

Now, he says, “more and more elected officials are adopting positions that were [until recently] on the fringe.”
他说，“越来越多的民选官员正在采纳汽车观点，尽管近期这类观点仍处于边缘。”

After a century in which the car remade the rich world, making possible everything from suburbs and supermarkets to drive-through restaurants and rush-hour traffic jams, the momentum may be beginning to swing the other way.
在汽车重塑发达国家的一个世纪中，万事皆可实现，郊区、超市、汽车穿梭餐厅、高峰时段的交通堵塞等，而这种势头可能正在开始向另一个方向转变。

[Paragraph 5]
Start with the demography, and in the country most shaped by the car.
从美国的（受汽车影响最多的国家）人口统计开始研究。

The average American driver goes much farther every year than most of his or her rich-world contemporaries: around 14,300 miles (23,000km) in 2022, which is about twice as far as the typical Frenchman.
美国司机平均每年的行程比其他大多数发达国家更远：2022年约为14300英里（23000公里），大约是普通法国人的2倍。

Nearly a century of road-building has resulted in sprawling cities, in which it is hard to get around in any other way.
近一个世纪的道路建设使城市向外蔓延扩张，因为很难有其他办法应对。

The city of Jacksonville, Florida, for instance, spreads across 875 square miles. With around 1m residents, that makes it only about twice as densely populated as the whole of England, only around 8% of which is classified as “urban”.
例如，佛罗里达州杰克逊维尔市的面积为875平方英里，约有100万居民，它的人口密度是整个英格兰的2倍，其中只有8%的面积被划为“市区”。

[Paragraph 6]
In the suburbs I learned to drive
在郊区我学会了开车

The Supreme Court said in 1977 that having a car was a “virtual necessity” for anyone living in America.
1977年最高法院表示，对于任何生活在美国的人来说，拥有一辆汽车“几乎是必要的”。

By 1997, 43% of the country’s 16-year-olds had driving licences. But in 2020, the most recent year for which figures are available, the number had fallen to just 25%.
到1997年，全国43%的16岁青少年有驾照。但在2020年，即有数据可查的最近一年，这一数字已降至25%。

Nor is it just teenagers. One in five Americans aged between 20 and 24 does not have a licence, up from just one in 12 in 1983.
数字下降不仅限于青少年群体。1/5的20岁-24岁的美国人没有驾照，而1983年这一数字是1/12。

The proportion of people with licences has fallen for every age group under 40, and on the latest data, is still falling. And even those who do have them are driving less.
40岁以下每个年龄组的持照人数比例都有所下降，最新数据显示，持照人数仍在下降。而那些有驾照的人，开车频率也降低了。

Between 1990 and 2017 the distance driven by teenage drivers in America declined by 35%, and those aged 20-34 by 18%.
1990年至2017年间，美国青少年司机的行驶路程下降了35%，20-34岁司机的行驶路程下降了18%。

It is entirely older drivers who account for still increasing traffic, as baby-boomers who grew up with cars do not give them up in retirement.
道路交通的增加完全来自于大龄司机，因为婴儿潮世代退休了不会放弃开车，他们是同汽车一起成长的一代。

[Paragraph 7]
A similar trend is well-established in Europe.
欧洲也有类似的趋势。

In Britain the proportion of teenagers able to drive has almost halved, from 41% to 21%, in the past 20 years.
在过去的20年里，英国会开车的青少年比例几乎减半，从41%降至21%。

Across the countries of the European Union there are more cars than ever. Yet even before the covid-19 lockdowns emptied the roads, the average distance travelled by each one had fallen by more than a tenth since the turn of the millennium.
欧盟各国的汽车不计其数。然而，2000-2019年间，每个人的平均行驶距离已经下降了1/10以上。

(The exceptions were relatively new member states such as Poland.) Even in Germany, where the internal-combustion engine is an economic totem, drivers are pushing the brakes.
（波兰等新欧盟成员国除外。）甚至在汽车占经济重要地位的德国，那里司机开车的频率也在下降。

[Paragraph 8]
No one is entirely sure why young adults are proving resistant to the charms of owning a set of wheels.
为什么年轻人开车欲望降低，没人100%清楚。

The growth of the internet is one obvious possibility—the more you can shop online, or stream films at home, the less need there is to drive into town.
互联网的发展显然是原因之一--网购或在家里观影的次数越多，开车进城的需求就越少。

The rise of taxi apps such as Uber and Lyft has almost certainly contributed as well, as have higher insurance premiums for young drivers.
优步和来福车等打车软件的兴起也起到一定的作用，因为年轻司机自己开车的话就要承担更高的保险费用。

Driving generally is more expensive. In America the average cost of owning a vehicle and driving 15,000 miles in it rose by 11% in 2022, to nearly $11,000.
开车通常比较贵。在美国，拥有一辆汽车并行驶1.5万英里的平均成本增长了11%，2022年的成本达到近1.1美元。

[Paragraph 9]
Other reasons seem more cultural. One big motivator, at least for the most committed, is worries about climate change.
其他更多的是文化原因。至少对最坚定的人来说，不开车是因为担心气候变化。

（恭喜读完，本篇英语词汇量884/1634左右，有删减）
原文出自：2023年2月18日《The Economist》International版块。

精读笔记来源于：自由英语之路

本文翻译整理: Irene本文编辑校对: Irene
仅供个人英语学习交流使用。

【补充资料】（来自于网络）
汽车穿梭餐厅模式起源于经济高度发展和汽车拥有量快速增长的20世纪中期的美国。是一种建有专用车道通向餐厅，消费者足不出车，通过车窗就可买到食品，省时便捷。“汽车穿梭(Drivethrough)餐厅”是一种主要为汽车驾驶者服务的餐厅。这种餐厅在汽车普及率很高的发达国家已非常普遍，许多国外肯德基餐厅都设有这样的购买窗口，在中国，专门为驾驶者提供饮食服务的餐厅渐渐也出现了。汽车穿梭餐厅与普通餐厅不同之处在于环绕餐厅外围设有一条长约100米左右的汽车穿梭专用车道，最少可以容纳6－7辆汽车排队购餐。

美国联邦公路管理局的初步数据显示，美国人在 2022 年第一季度行驶了 402 亿英里（647 亿公里）。车辆一年行驶2至3万公里为正常。

杰克逊维尔市位于美国南部佛罗里达州东北部，系全美第15大城市，城市面积840平方英里（2150平方公里），人口100余万，从地理意义上说是美国最大的城市。

“婴儿潮世代”（Babyboomers）早已是家喻户晓的名词。在二战之后的1946—1964年间，美国共有七千五百九十多万婴儿出生，约占美国总人口的三分之一。如今这群人正是人到中年的壮年族和美国社会的中坚力量。

【重点句子】（3 个）
Getting a driving licence was once a nearly universal rite of passage into adulthood. Now it is something that a growing minority of young people either ignore or actively oppose, into their 20s and beyond.
拿驾照曾经是步入成年的必经过程。现在，越来越多20几岁的年轻人忽视驾照或明确表示不想考驾照，虽然从数量上说，他们仍是少数。

After a century in which the car remade the rich world, making possible everything from suburbs and supermarkets to drive-through restaurants and rush-hour traffic jams, the momentum may be beginning to swing the other way.
在汽车重塑发达国家的一个世纪中，万事皆可实现，郊区、超市、汽车穿梭餐厅、高峰时段的交通堵塞等，而这种势头可能正在开始向另一个方向转变。

The growth of the internet is one obvious possibility—the more you can shop online, or stream films at home, the less need there is to drive into town.
互联网的发展显然是原因之一--网购或在家里观影的次数越多，开车进城的需求就越少。