中国正在调查怪异的空中巴士，现在回想起来完全是个骗局（排版更新了） [美国媒体]

China is investigatingthat weird, traffic-straddling bus, which in retrospect was totally a scam

中国正在调查怪异的空中巴士，现在回想起来完全是个骗局



From ‘eating cars’ todefrauding investors

从“吞汽车”到诈骗投资者

by Andrew J. Hawkins@andyjayhawk Jul 3, 2017, 2:46pm EDT
原文时间：2017-07-03 2:46pm



Last year, the internet briefly caught fire when pictures of a weird,elevated bus that glides above traffic began circulating around. The so-called“straddling bus” was held up as a solution to China’s notorious trafficproblems, but all anyone wanted to talk about was how it looked like the bus waseating cars, or how insane anyone would have to be to actually driveunderneath.

去年，一个奇怪的、悬空的公交车在交通道路上滑行的照片在网上火了一把。这个所谓的“空中巴士”曾被认为是解决中国臭名昭着的交通问题的一个方案，但是人们更多的是在讨论它看起来像在吞并其他车辆，或者是每个人都要在它下面开车是多么的疯狂。

But as the months ticked by, the Transit Elevated Bus (as it was known)failed to stand up to much scrutiny. Jalopnik noticed how shabby the thinglooked on closer inspection. And when CNN sent its reportersto investigate further, all they discovered was a “hulking eyesore” that wascausing traffic rather than shuttling passengers above it.

但是几个月的时间过去了，这个空中巴士却没能经得起仔细的观察。Jalopnik注意到这个东西在近距离的观察下是多么的破旧。同样的，当CNN派了一些记者去进行进一步的调查时，他们发现空中巴士是一个引起交通拥挤而非运输乘客的“碍眼的笨重物”。

Police in Beijing are investigating the elevated bus company

北京警方正在调查“空中巴士”这家公司。

Now it seems like the local authorities have finally caught on. According to Quartz,police in Beijing are investigating whether the company behind TEB wasillegally raising money through an online portal. This news comes a week afterthe government announced that it planned to remove the 300-meter track the buswas supposed to run on by the end of the month.

现在看起来地方当局终于明白了。根据Quartz的报道，北京警方正在调查空中巴士背后的公司是否通过一个在线网站进行非法集资。这则消息是在政府宣布月底将清除这个300米长原本是空中巴士在上面运行的轨道一周后发布的。

Citing sources on the microblogging site Weibo, Quartzreports that Bai Zhiming, chief executive of TEB Technology Development, aBeijing-based company that purchased the patent for the elevated bus, was among30 people detained by police in connection to the alleged scheme. Days beforehis arrest, Bai told Chinese media he planned to move the bus to another city.

根据Quartz引用微博上的消息报道，白志明，设立在北京并购买了空中巴士专利的巴铁科技发展有限公司的董事长，是被警方拘捕的与这个所谓的巴铁计划有关的30人之一。在他被逮捕的几天前，白志明告诉中国媒体他计划将巴铁转移到另一个城市。

The bus was first unveiled in 2010, and then again last year at Beijing’s 19thInternational High-Tech Expo. At the time, the designer of the bus saidprototypes were being constructed, and that five cities had signed contractswith his company for pilot projects. The first test run was to be held in thenortheastern port city of Qinghuangdao.

空中巴铁首次公开是在2010年，然后在去年的北京第十九届国际科技博览会上亮相。同时巴铁的设计者声称巴铁原型正在制造中，而且已经有5座城市与其公司签订了项目试验合同。首次测试将在东北港口城市秦皇岛进行。

To host a test drive of the prototype bus, the city built special tracksfor the giant electric-powered vehicle, which is 72 feet long and 16 feet high.Meanwhile, TEB Technology promised to restore the 330-yard-long test site toits original state by the end of last August, according to China's officialstate news agency Xinhua. That never happened. And now those tracks will begone by the end of this August.

为了这个72英尺长、16英尺高的巨型电动车辆进行测试，这座城市建立了一条特殊的轨道。与此同时，根据中国官方新闻媒体新华社报道，巴铁科技保证截止去年8月底将330码长的测试点恢复至原样。但这一切从未实现。现在这些轨道在今年8月底将彻底消失。

The elevated bus (which is really a train when you think about it) appearsto be a victim of China’s fast-growing, unregulated, and occasionally sketchypeer-to-peer lending sector. In other words, it wasn’t because the design wastoo weird, or the technology was unsound — although itstands to reason this thing could have exploded right out of the gate. It’sgood that China is searching for outside-the-box ideas to tackle its notorioustraffic congestion and pollution. Here in the US we’re too addicted to our carsto put any real thought into ways to expand andinnovate on public transportation.

这个空中巴士（实际上你会认为这是辆火车）似乎是中国高速发展、未经调控、偶尔粗略点对点借贷部门的受害者之一。换句话说，并不是因为这个设计太怪异或者是技术不够健全— 尽管这可能说明这东西刚开出门就会爆炸。中国寻找一些创造性的想法来解决其臭名昭着的交通拥挤和污染是一件好事。但在美国，我们太过于依赖我们的汽车，无法将真正的想法付诸行动，也无法进行交通扩大和创新。

Just last month, Chinese rail transit company CRRC unveiled something itcalls the Autonomous Rail Rapid Transit, a cross between atrain and a bus or tram. The ART runs on roads like a bus, but only alongdesignated paths like a tram. It follows a pair of white lines painted on thestreet, rather than a track, which could be a huge cost saver in the world ofstreetcars.

就在上个月，中国铁路运输公司CRRC公开了名为自动轨道交通的项目，一种介于火车和公交或者有轨电车之间的交通工具。这种交通工具像公交车一样在路上行驶，只不过像有轨电车一样沿着指定的路径。它沿着地面上的一对白线行驶，而不是一条轨道，这可能会是世界地面电车中巨大的成本节约。

CRRC is a state-owned entity and the second largest construction andengineering company in the world. That means it’s probably less fly-by-nightthan the company behind the ill-fated TEB. Does that mean the ART stands abetter chance? Let’s hope so. The first line is currently under construction inthe city of Zhuzhou and is expected to become operational

CRRC是一家国营企业，是世界上第二大建筑工程公司。这也就说明它要比倒霉的巴铁背后的公司更加靠谱。这说明自动轨道交通会有更好的机会？希望如此。首条线路位于株洲市，正在建设当中，预计将投入运营。


Big Macs 
It must beterrifying to drive under that. In addition to this there should have beenconcrete barricades on each side between the bus and cars so cars are lesslikely to collide with the actual bus.

在巴铁下面开车肯定很吓人。考虑到这点应该在行驶的汽车和巴铁之间建个混凝土隔板，这样就不太可能撞到巴铁上了。

Wrongguy 
I don’t see whyit should be any worse than driving in a tunnel. Millions of people drive intunnels every day without crashing into the walls.

没看出来这比在隧道里开车差到哪去。每天数百万的人在隧道里开车，没见到有撞墙上的。

jason.joyner.5205 
Obvious reasonwhy it’s different. A tunnel doesn’t suddenly appear out of nowhere, and thewalls in a tunnel aren’t moving.

很明显两者不一样。隧道不会突然出现，隧道里的墙也不会移动。 

Wrongguy
It might not bea good idea until all cars are driverless. But when people are eventuallybanned from driving cars in traffic, this might be a good supplement to masstransportation.

除非所有汽车都是无人驾驶，否则巴铁就不是个好想法。如果最终人们被禁止开车，也许巴铁就是个好的替代物可以批量生产。

joeschmo69 
It follows apair of white lines painted on the street, rather than a trackI’m sure I’mnot the only one who immediately thought how easy it would be to lead this tramoff a cliff or into a house…

“它沿着地面上的一对白线行驶，而不是一条轨道..”
我马上就想到把这个列车拐到悬崖边或者拐回家是多么的容易，我确定不止我一个人这么想。 

Daws001 
I’m justimagining how elderly drivers will react to that thing driving over them. Hopeit has good bumpers underneath it.

我想在老司机们在下面开车反应如何？希望巴铁的下面安装了坚固的保险杠。

Harry Mlondobozi So thecar-eating bus was scammy. Okay. Cool idea nonetheless.

所以这个吞车的公交车是个骗局。但这仍然是个很酷的想法。

step-hen 
These are acouple of my concerns that may only be in my mind because of an ignorance tohow the Chinese roadway system is designed. Here they are:How would itdeal with curvy roads? How would it avoid traffic signals and signs? Wouldlarger trucks and semis pray they wouldn’t be stuck behind one of these things?How safe would riding in one of these be – would anycollision to the legs ever cause the floor to collapse down? How is boardinggoing to work?

因为我不太了解中国的道路系统是怎么设计的，所以我有一些问题，可能不只我一个人有：遇到弯曲的道路巴铁怎么处理？它是怎么避免交通信号灯和其他标志的？大卡车和半挂车会卡在这东西下面吗？在这东西下面开车安全程度怎么样？–撞到巴铁一侧的支撑会导致上面塌下来吗？乘客是怎么上车的？

Jerod 
I love how, inan article showcasing a scam in the Chinese transportation sector, we get asentence out of left field bashing the American transportation culture. Therecould be a real story to go along with that sentence, but it has no place inthe above article."Here inthe US we’re too addicted to our cars to put any real thought into ways toexpand and innovate on public transportation."

新闻中展现了中国交通部门的一个骗局，让人意外的是文章中有一句话抨击了美国的交通文化。这句话背后可能有个真实的故事，但新闻里没有地方来写这个故事。
“但在美国，我们太过于依赖我们的汽车，无法将真正的想法付诸行动，也无法进行交通扩大和创新。” 

iAmDeathTheKid 
Did youactually read the link? That is a real story.

你有看链接的新闻吗？那是个真实的故事。（译注：链接是一篇新闻：一代人的失败：就像美国人幻想的那样，世界上其他地方建立了新的交通系统） 

Jerod 
It’s entirelyunrelated to the point of the article it’s in.

这句话（指的抨击美国交通文化的那句）和新闻里的观点完全无关。


Jerod 
I should havementioned in that reply that the slew of comments right after ours are why Iwas annoyed with that sentence. The comments largely ignore the point of thearticle.

我应该提一下，我之所以讨厌那句话（抨击的话）是因为下面的一些评论，这些评论大多数忽略了文章的重点。

DJCR33P 
He included itto support a statement. Pretty basic in long form writing. Not sure why youstruggle so hard to understand…

新闻作者用这句话来支持他的陈述。很基本的长篇写作。不懂你为啥这么难理解…

theHuntronTracker 
I was thinkingthe same thing. Americans like cars and a lot of us have one. From what I’veseen intercity public transit isn’t a huge issue.I’d beinterested in hearing why we need high speed rails to travel between bigcities, besides the fact that other countries have them.

我也在思考这个。美国人喜欢车，而且我们中的大多数都有一辆。从我所看到的来说，城际公共交通根本不是什么大问题。除了其他国家已经拥有的事实，我倒有兴趣听听美国的各个城市之间为什么需要高铁？

pappas.antonis 
They are bothmore efficient and faster.

高铁更加快速更加效率。

Captain Megaton 
The problem isthe population density of N. America is so much lower than Europe, Japan, or alot of China. The lower the population density, the more inefficient publictransport becomes. America though has a further disincentive due to very cheapgasoline and a public-funded highway infrastructure.The Shinkansentrains between Tokyo and Osaka (600 km) run every 7-10 minutes, cost $125 andtake just over two hours. Since the freeways are all toll roads, and gasolineis expensive, driving would cost about the same if not more, and take 2-3 timeslonger. Unless you are a group of 4 or more, or need your car at thedestination, you normally take the train.If gasoline was$5-6 a gallon, and interstates cost about $10/100 miles in tolls, Americanswould have a very different view of trains.

问题是美国北部的人口密度要远低于欧洲、日本、或者是中国的多数地方。人口密度越低，交通运输的效率就变得越低。然而美国便宜的油价和公共投资的高速设施还起到了进一步的抑制作用。大阪和东京之间（600km）的新干线列车每7-10分钟一班，票价125美元，耗时2小时。由于高速全部收费，汽油价格昂贵，开车的费用就算不多的话也和新干线票价差不多，但是会花费2-3倍的时间。除非你是4个人一起出行或者是在目的地需要用到汽车，否则一般情况还是会乘坐新干线。如果汽油价格是5-6美元每加仑，高速收费10美元/100英里，那么美国人对于火车可能就是另一种看法了。

dan blank 
Gas is the equivalenceof $5.25/gallon (on a cheap day) here in Canada and we spend as much intohighway infrastructure as you Americans. We need gas to be exponentially higherand greater country wide density to increase RRTspending. Vancouver and Toronto are spending a lot in that category but its notfeasible elsewhere.

在加拿大汽油的价格差不多5.25美元/加仑（便宜的时候），我们也像美国那样在高速设施方面大量投入。要想增加快速轨道交通的花费，我们需要汽油价格指数式的增高、更高的人口密度。温哥华和多伦多在这方面花费了很多，但不是在别处却不可行。 

websnap 
Vancouver andToronto are spending alot in that category but its not feasible elsewhere.I’m fromWinnipeg and we are just starting Phase two of Rapid Transit here. Rapidtransit isn’t just about Inter-city traveling, but also traversing a city in acheap, fast and reliable way. Making it easier for someone to keep a job theylive far from.

“温哥华和多伦多在这方面花费了很多，但不是在别处却不可行。”
我来自温尼伯，我们正在开始建设两条城市轨道交通路线。城市轨道交通不仅是用于城市间的旅行，也可以便宜、快速、可靠的在一座城市中穿行。让居住较远地方的人更容易保住他们的工作。 

dan blank
But does your RRT cost $6B for a new extension ?(the last installment, theCanada line cost $2B because they super cheaped out) which will definitely goover budget. Most of the Liberals transit projects are going to 2 cities, oneof the projects which i think is a waste of money is the $100M station upgradeat Commercial station (vancouver), essentially if the provincial government didn’tuse it then they get nothing and it would go to another province sounfortunately they are upgrading a station way over the necessity of otherjurisdictions transit plans.

你们的RRT（快速轨道交通）扩建一条新线花费了60亿美元吗？（因为超级便宜，最新一期加拿线只花费了20亿美元）这很明显超出了预算。大多数自由行交通项目都是建立在两座城市之间，但其中一个在温哥华1亿美元车站升级的项目我认为是浪费的，本来，如果省政府不使用这个车站，他们就不会得到任何好处，那这个项目就可以转移到其他省份。不幸的是他们升级了这个车站，和其他行政区域的交通计划相比，这个项目远远超出了它的需求。 

websnap 
Obviously not –it’s more in the 500m range but that is because we don’t have many adjoiningmunicipalities to connect to. 500m is still a lot, especially since the lastmayor took the former mayor’s fantastic plan and found a way to make it takelonger and cost almost twice as much by giving deals to his friends.

很明显不是，花费更多的是在5亿美元的范围内，但那是因为我们没有很多相邻的城市可以接通。5亿美元仍然很多，特别是最新一任市长从上任市长那接手了一项异想天开的计划，把这桩生意交给了他的朋友，结果花了更长的时间和双倍的价格。 

snugglez 
The point ofhaving a higher gasoline tax and toll roads is not (in my opinion) to influencepeople to do something different, but to have them PAYfor what they GET.A free marketdepends on people actually paying for what they get, and right now those thatburn fossil fuel are allowed to dump CO2 for FREE intothe common atmosphere. That is not cost-free, and yet, they pay nothing forthat. It’s anti-market.Same withnon-toll roads. Why should you be allowed to use a road for free? Someone hasto pay to build and maintain it, why should it not be the people that use it?For a while the answer was that toll infrastructure was added cost and frictionto transportation, but that is rapidly changing.Gas should costmore, and roads should have tolls because you should pay for what you get. Aside benefit of paying for what you get is that it’s likely that the marketwould "discover" that renewable energy sources are actuallycost-competitive withoutgovernment incentives.

提高燃油税和过路费的意义不是在于（我认为）影响人们做出不同的选择，而是在于让人们为他们所得到东西付出相应的代价。一个自由市场依赖于人们为他们所得到东西付出的实际代价，现在燃烧化石燃料允许免费排放CO2到大气中，这并不是没有代价的，相反，人们并没有为此付出相应的代价。这是违背市场的。免费公路也是同样的。为什么你被允许免费使用公路？有人需要为建造和维护公路买账，为什么这个人不能是使用它的人呢？有一段时间，人们的答案是收费公路给交通运输增加了花费和阻力，但这种情况正迅速改变。油价应该更高，公路应该收费，因为你应该为你得到的东西付出相应代价。这种做法的附加利益是市场可能会在没有政府激励的情况下寻求实际上有成本竞争力的可再生能源。

dan blank 
Negative externalities, Economics 101 they use this as the example for the last 15 yearsbut apparently it can only apply in the textbooks of first year econ students.

外部负效应，经济学入门课程中他们用这个作为过去15年的例子，但很明显，这个只能用在经济学学生第一年的课本中。


bhima.jenkins 
Ummm… Roadsaren’t free in the US. We collectively pay for them with all sorts of differenttaxes at the Federal, state and local levels. This is much more efficient thanhaving to pay a toll. Its like playing an MMO and justpaying a monthly fee to get everything instead of getting nickeled and dimed todeath from a F2P game.

嗯…公路在美国并不免费。在联邦、洲和地方，我们集体为其支付各种不同的税收。比起征收过路费这更加高效。这就像网游一样付月费就能得到所有东西，而不是像免费游戏一样需要花钱买各种道具。

badasscat1 
Do you honestlythink other countries have them because they’re stupid? Or that they’re alljust trying to be trendy?If you’re genuinelyinterested in why high speed rail is a good thing, rather than beinginterested in perpetuating your ignorance, there are many, many articles oneGoogle click away about just this subject. It’s not information that’sdifficult to find. If, again, you’re actually interested.

（回复那个美国为什么要有高铁的评论）老实说，你不会认为其他国家有高铁是因为他们很蠢吧？或者说是只是因为他们想赶时髦？如果你真的对为什么高铁是个好东西感兴趣而不是对保持你的无知感兴趣的话，随便在谷歌上点一点就能找到许多许多相关文章。这不是多么难找的信息。如果你真的感兴趣的话。

nicolaramoso 
Maybebecause you can travel at 180 mph (300 km/h) from a city to another withoutbeing worried about the traffic, check ins and many other things?
I don’t know the advantages seems obvious to me.

（回复那个美国为什么要有高铁的评论）可能是因为不用担心交通拥挤和办理手续或者其他事情就能以300km/h的速度从一座城市到达另一座城市？我不清楚，这些好处对我来说显而易见。 

theHuntronTracker 
They are also extremelyexpensive. The high speed rail from San Francisco to L.A. will cost $64billion, according to the latest estimate, and the cost for a ticketfrom SF to LA is an estimated $86, according to an LA Times article. But that estimate isn’teven accurate, because if it was true then the high speed rail would be thecheapest HSR in the world, and would "lose moneyand require a subsidy", according to Joseph Vranich, former president ofthe national High-Speed Rail Assn. At $86 a ticket, buyers would pay 20 cents amile. The HSR from Paris to Lyon, one of the fewprofitable rails in the world, charges 52 cents a mile. Clearly, $86 is not anaccurate estimate.I googled"why America needs high speed rail" and "why high speed rail isgood" and got no result worth investigating, because I don’t consider theChristian Science Monitor or Quora as reputable sources.So tell me,when 95% of Americans have cars and we have a functioning interstate highwaysystem, when we have airlines going from every major city at rates that aren’tmuch higher than what a HSR would charge, when thereare already many intercity bus systems that offer competitive prices for travel(a ticket for a ~7 hour Megabus from SF to LA is only $26) why do we reallyneed to spend billions of dollars on a high speed rail? And please, offer mesome articles to read instead of calling me ignorant.

（这是说美国为啥需要高铁的那位）高铁价格十分昂贵。根据洛杉矶时报的文章，最新的估计，建造从旧金山到洛杉矶的高铁将会花费640亿美元，而相应的票价估计是86美元。据前国家高速铁路协会主席Joseph Vranich所说，这个估计值并不准确，因为如果估计值是准确的话，那这将会是全世界最便宜的高铁，运行起来将会亏损并需要补贴。按照86美元的票价来算，相当于20美分/英里。巴黎至里昂的高铁，是全世界为数不多盈利的高铁之一，费用52美分/英里。很明显，86美元并不是个准确的估计。我在谷歌上查了“为什么美国需要高铁”和“为什么高铁是个好东西”，显示并没有相关的结果，因为我不认为基督教科学箴言报和Quora（相当于中国的知乎）是有信誉的消息来源。所以告诉我，当95%的美国人拥有车辆且我们有一个运行正常的洲际公路系统，当我们有高效且价格并不比高铁贵多少能够飞往每个主要城市的航空公司，当有许多提供合理价格的城际巴士系统时（一张耗时7小时从旧金山到洛杉矶的超级巴士的票价只要26美元），为什么我们需要花费数十亿美元去建造高铁呢？还有，请给我一些文章让我读一读而不是说我无知。

TheVogon 
Lower CO2 emissions.

更低的CO2排放

HajjDavid 
ALL cars, trucks, busses, boats, and airplanes putout 1800% LESS greenhouse gasses then cows do. If wewere to burn every ounce of oil and coal we would still have less CO2 in theair than during the time of the dinosaurs (where humans didnt exist!).I find CO2 tobe a nonissue entirely. It is physically impossible for earth to ever get NEAR the level of venus. Carbon goes through a cycle, shortof importing oil from astroids, we will eventually release it all into the airand it will take another few thousand years to finish cycling.

所有的汽车、卡车、公交车、船只和飞机产生的温室气体比奶牛少了1800%。如果我们烧掉每一盎司的石油和煤炭所产生的CO2仍然少于恐龙时代我发现CO2完全不是问题。对于地球来说依人为之力根本无法达到金星CO2的水平。碳经过一个循环，除了从太空中获取石油外，我们最终将它释放到空气中，再过个几千年就可以完成一个循环了。

Hachesse 
HSR from Paris to Lyon, one of the few profitablerails in the world, charges 52 cents a mile. Clearly, $86 is not an accurateestimateIf you’re goingto be pompous with numbers, please have them right. If you care to check fromthe French carrier website,this is peak-hour, first-class flex fare. Most people use much cheaper options,typically 25% less in 2nd class, and as low as 60% cheaper with early purchase.

“巴黎至里昂的高铁，是全世界为数不多盈利的高铁之一，费用52美分/英里。很明显，86美元并不是个准确的估计。”（引用上面的评论）如果你想用数字来自夸的话，请把数字都写对了。如果你在法国运输网站上查询的话，你会发现（你提到的价格）只是高峰时期，头等舱的弹性票价。大多数人都选择更便宜的选项，典型的就是比头等舱便宜25%的二等舱，提前预定还能便宜60%。

Captain Megaton 
There is acertain irony that Americans reject public transit while demandingpublicly-funded transit infrastructure.

讽刺的是，美国人拒绝公共交通，却又对公费交通基础建设有需求.

sewercat
I prefer nicepublic transit, particularly train travel, to driving. I’ve taken thehigh-speed train from Suzhou to Shanghai quite a bit and it’s cheap, fast andvery pleasant compared to air travel or sitting in traffic. Plus I don’t haveto deal with horrible drivers.You don’t justhave gas and time costs with a car, you also have the car itself and insuranceand maintenance. In Hong Kong I spend about $50-$80/ month on transit and I canget just about everywhere on it. In the U.S. I spend $75/month just forinsurance for one car with a low-mileage discount. Then there’s the car paymentitself, and maintenance and electric. Even with a plug-in range that covers 90%of my travel I still spend about $10-$15/month on gas.In most of theU.S. there isn’t enough population density to support public transit. Inwestern cities like LA where the population exists for it the density stillisn’t there. The U.S. is kind of stuck in a catch 22 since auto manufacturersbought up and destroyed a lot of intercity public transit and urban sprawlreally forces everyone to drive. In cities where there is enough populationdensity, like NY we’ve never had really good public transit. The NYC Metro is one of the most used in the country and that’s ahorrible example of public transit: perpetually delayed, filthy, hot, full ofrats. Nobody wants to ride it so the fare is exceptionally high and it stillrequires a subsidy. Seoul, on the other hand, supposedly has the best publictransit in the world with lots of amenities and clean, well maintained,reliable trains. The base fare costs a fraction of what the NYCmetro fare is and the whole thing is self-supporting because it has a massivepopulation riding it.It’s not thatit isn’t a huge issue, I think a lot of people just don’t realize the benefitof a solid public transit system.

（回复美国为啥需要高铁的评论）我愿意选择更好的出行方式，尤其是铁路，而不是自己开车。苏州到上海的高铁我已经乘坐了很多次了，和坐飞机或者开车相比，高铁即便宜舒适又让人感觉很愉快。还有一点，我不用想办法怎么对付那些恐怖的司机们了。驾车行驶你所需花费的不仅仅是油钱和时间，还有车辆本身、保险和保养费。在香港我每个月在交通上花费50-80美元，就能到达几乎任何地方。而在美国光保险费用我每个月就要交纳75美元，还是在有短途行驶折扣的情况下。还有买车的钱、维修保养费和电费。即使充电站覆盖率能达到我出行范围的90%以上，我每个月的油钱也要10-15美元。美国大多数地方的人口密度都不足以支撑起公共交通系统。类似洛杉矶的西方城市人口密度仍然不足。自从汽车制造商收购并摧毁了许多城际交通系统，加上城市扩张后，人们不得不选择驾车出行。在像纽约市一样有足够人口密度的城市，仍然没有像样的公共交通系统。纽约市的地铁是美国最常使用的公交系统之一，但却是公共交通的一个可怕的例子：总是延误，环境肮脏，到处都是老鼠。没人愿意乘坐，所以价格昂贵，还需要补贴。韩国首尔，有着可能是全世界最棒的公共交通系统，干净舒适，维护的也很好，列车更可靠。而基础票价只有纽约地铁票价的一小部分。而且因为有大量的人口选择乘坐，所以它能够做到自营（不需要国家补贴）。并不是说这是一个很大的问题，我觉得是人们没有意识到牢靠的公共交通系统所带来的好处。 

twhedonist 
Are yousuggesting we non-Americans have high speed railway because we don’t have car?Public transit and personal vehicles are not mutual-exclusive. We can still buycar if we want. And most of us have bought one. Long distance public transitcan be fast, safe and convenient. I don’t know why Americans need to drivehours and hours between big cities and yet can still brag about it.

（回复美国为啥需要高铁的评论）你是在暗示我们非美国人建造高铁是因为我们没有车吗？公共交通系统和私人车辆并不是互相排斥的。如果我们想的话仍然会去买车。而且我们中的大多数都买了一辆。长途出行选择高铁更加快捷，安全和方便。我真的不理解为啥美国人要开好几个小时的车在大城市之间穿梭，而且还能以此炫耀一番。 

Stone Cold DanQuinn
I’m notbragging. I live in one of the worst cities in America as far as traffic isconcerned. And most people still don’t want any affordable publictransportation "because it will bring crime." I’m surrounded byidiots

我没有在炫耀。我生活在美国最差的几座城市中的一个，以至于没有什么交通可言。大多数人都不想有个价格实惠的公交系统，“因为它会带来犯罪。”我周围的人都是白痴。 

HajjDavid
It has nothingto do with crime, rather it is because it is extremely expensive to start upand unlike european cities america is far more spread out and less dense,making mass transportation far less valuable.

这和犯罪无关，而是因为启动公共交通系统建设的花费极其昂贵，不像欧洲城市，美国城市更加分散而且人口密度更低，搞公共交通系统的话没什么价值。

gommerthus 
But if there meritin that criticism?The next timeyou’re stuck in a traffic and you need to be somewhere – oh boy would you thinkthere is.What ways canwe improve upon public transportation, as it exists today in North America?What lessons can we take from Japan, Korea, and Europe, with their blindinglyfast rapid transit systems?

（回复第一条说文章中不应该出现批评美国交通的话的评论）但是如果那个批评里有一些值得思考的地方呢？下次你想到某个地方但是却堵在了路上的时候—哦，孩子，你会认为确实有值得思考的地方。就目前美国北部的公共交通系统来说，我们该用什么方法改善提升呢？从日本、美国和欧洲极其快速的交通系统中我们该吸取什么教训呢？