首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
It takes a while, as you walk around the streets of Nantes, a city of half a million people on the banks of the Loire River, to
It takes a while, as you walk around the streets of Nantes, a city of half a million people on the banks of the Loire River, to
admin
2011-01-02
70
问题
It takes a while, as you walk around the streets of Nantes, a city of half a million people on the banks of the Loire River, to realize just what it is that is odd. Then you get it: there are empty parking slots, which is highly unusual in big French towns.
Two decades of effort to make life more livable by dissuading people from driving into town has made Nantes a beacon for other European cities seeking to shake dependence on the automobile.
The effects were clear recently during Mobility Week, a campaign sponsored by the European Union that prompted more than 1,000 towns across the Continent to test ways of making their streets, if not car- free, at least manageable. "That is an awfully difficult problem," acknowledges Joel Crawford, an author and leader of the "car free" movement picking up adherents all over Europe. "You can’t take cars oat of cities until there is some sort of alternative in place. But there are a lot of forces pointing in the direction of a major reduction in car use, like the rise in fuel prices, and concerns about global warming."
Last week, proclaiming the slogan "In Town, Without my Car !" hundreds of cities closed off whole chunks of their centers to all but essential traffic. Nantes closed just a few streets, preferring to focus on alternatives to driving so as to promote "Clever Commuting", the theme of this year’s EU campaign. Volunteers pedaled rickshaws along the cobbled streets, charging passengers $1.20 an hour; bikes were available for free; and city workers encouraged children to walk to school along routes supervised by adults acting as Pied Pipers and picking up kids at arranged stops.
The centerpiece is a state-of-the-art tramway providing service to much of the town, and a network of free, multistory parking lots to encourage commuters to "park and ride". Rene Vincendo, a retired hospital worker waiting at one such parking lot for his wife to return from the city center, is sold. "To go into town, this is brilliant," he says. "I never take my car in now."
It is not cheap, though. Beyond the construction costs, City Hall subsidizes fares to the tune of 60 million euros ($ 72 million) a year, making passengers pay only 40 percent of operating costs.
That is the only way to draw people onto trams and buses, says de Rugy, since Nantes, like many European cities, is expanding, and commuters find themselves with ever-longer distances to travel. The danger, he warns, is that "the further you go down the route of car dependence, the harder it is to return, because so many shops, schools and other services are built beyond the reach of any financially feasible public-transport network." This, adds de Rugy, means that "transport policy is only half the answer. Urban planners and transport authorities have to work hand in hand to ensure that services are provided close to transport links."
The carrot-and-stick approach that Nantes has taken — cutting back on parking in the town center and making it expensive, while improving public transport — has not reduced the number of cars on the road. But it has "put a brake on the increase we would have seen otherwise" and that other European cities have seen, says Dominique Godineau, head of the city’s "mobility department".
选项
答案
B
解析
推断题。第二段开头说Nantes花了二十年的时间才逐渐缓解了交通问题,可见该市以前交通状况也不是很好,故选B。文章并未说Nantes是法国交通最好的城镇,排除A;第二段说Nantes市政府说服居民不要开车进程,但是没有提到他们是否是第一家这样做的,排除C;选项D原文未提及。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/S9eO777K
0
专业英语八级
相关试题推荐
1 Insomniaisunderappreciated.2 Manypeoplewouldratheradmittotheirfetishesandcontagiousrashesthanconfesstoinsom
1 Television—themostpervasiveandpersuasiveofmoderntechnologies,markedbyrapidchangeandgrowth—ismovingintoanewe
TheAmericanTaxSystemGovernmentsraiserevenuesthroughtaxation.Ataxisa【1】_______paymenttogovernment.I
TheGrandCanyon,carvedbytheColoradoriver,innorthwestern_____isoneofnature’smostimpressivesights.
IntheartoftheMiddleAges,weneverencounterthepersonalityoftheartistasanindividual;ratheritisdiffusedthrough
BeliefWeallbelieveinsomethingorsomeone.Wemustbelieve,justaswemusteat,sleep,andreproduce.Mankindhasanins
TheClassicalSenseofGoodGovernmentPoliticsplaysanextremelyimportantroleinhumansociety.Politicalphilosophersst
LosAngelescabinet-makerEdwardStewartmaybeamodernDr.Frankenstein.In1959,heclaims,herestoredadeadfriendtolife
随机试题
中共中央总书记习近平主持召开中共中央政治局会议时指出,长三角一体化发展具有极大的区域带动和示范作用,要紧扣“()”和“()”两个关键,带动整个长江经济带和华东地区发展,形成高质量发展的区域集群。
先天性肌性斜颈的手术年龄为
城镇市政基础设施工程的建设单位应在开工前向()申请领取施工许可证。
下列关于期货投机者和套期保值者的描述中,不正确的是()。
大海公司当期自行研发一项无形资产,当期发生研究开发支出共计320万元,其中研究阶段支出120万元,开发阶段不符合资本化条件的支出50万元,开发阶段符合资本化条件的支出150万元,假定大海公司该项研发当期达到预定用途转入无形资产核算,当期摊销30万元。税法允
《农村土地承包法》规定,家庭承包的承包方依法享有承包地使用、收益和土地承包经营权流转的权利,有权自主组织生产经营和处置产品的权利。()
通货膨胀,不仅会直接导致工资、储蓄和养老保险等百姓资产缩水,使低收入者的生活更为窘迫,而且会误导资源配置,扰乱经济秩序,严重时还会诱发经济泡沫和社会动荡。下列关于通货膨胀原因的推测不正确的是()。
清代在绘画方面取得很大的成就,清朝初年出现了清初六大家,即________、_________、王犟、王原祁、__________和___________。其中,___________是清初影响很大的花鸟画家。清代画坛上成就最大的是清初的朱耷、石涛等人和清
若可微函数z=f(χ,y)在极坐标系下只是θ的函数,证明:χ=0(r≠0).
程序测试的目的是
最新回复
(
0
)