ＢＲＴ：將街道還給市民

⊙作者簡介：芬德利·尼科爾,1997年來到濟(jì)南,在山東經(jīng)濟(jì)學(xué)院教授課程

Findlay Nicol,arrived in the city to teach English in 1997 in Shandong Economic University

The other day I had a wonderful experience for maybe the first time in my life I had a feeling of superiority. Let me explain. I was taking my first ever ride on the BRT number 2 heading south up Li Shan Lu and I felt infinitely superior to all the drivers stuck in yet another traffic jam and rapidly losing their cool as their frustrated monsters blasted yet more polluting exhaust fumes into the atmosphere. As a non-driver, happy pedestrian and committed public transport user, it gave me great cause for schadenfreude to appreciate that my journey was costing me 1 yuan and their non-journey was a far more expensive experience.

BRT – bus rapid transit is an innovation in Jinan but has been in use in large advanced cities in China for a few years now. The important part is the 'rapid transit' concept: this implies that passengers can be moved as quickly and efficiently as possible across urban areas. In some places this can be achieved by a high-speed rail or monorail link but the most economical system to introduce is a dedicated bus route which allows the buses to move freely through the snarls created by too many cars. This is the BRT innovation which has now reached Jinan. The east-west link has been operation since April and is able to be moving 10,000 passengers per hour or 800 at any one time at peak times – imagine all these in cars even four to a car! It runs for 10 km mainly under the viaduct and so has little impact on other traffic. The north-south link is the one that runs from the bus station (the busiest in China in terms of passengers) along a specially constructed central track to the intersection of Jing Shi Lu and Erhuan Dong Lu. It is this latter corridor that has caused a little bit of controversy and aroused the jealousy of my juggernaut driving friends. Drivers seem to imagine that every road in every city is there for their unique benefit, but actually that is not so. In China at least the mass of people are still non-drivers. They also have a justified claim to be able to enjoy the use of what are, after all, their roads built by their government and paid for by their taxes. If this means that they can now travel in comfort on BRT then surely this is not only acceptable but desirable.

There have recently been several major road construction projects in Jinan. All of these have caused a great deal of disruption and inconvenience both to drivers and to pedestrians and bus-users like myself. However at the end of the day all this suffering has been rewarded in every case by roads which are wider and safer and the chief beneficiaries have been the drivers. The provision of bus and cycle lanes has been a great help to many but only the BRT special tracks have put the non-driver in the fast lane. Everyone agrees that there are too many cars on the streets of Jinan. Only efficient and inexpensive public transport which can equal the speed and convenience of the car will encourage car owners to leave them at home on non-essential travel. BRT has the promise of going a long way to providing that solution.

Experience in other cities around the world has shown that as awareness of the system grows an increasing number of passengers use it. Because it is something new people need time to discover its attractions. The buses Ihave travelled on so far have been less than full, mainly I think because the majority of people don't know very much about the system or its convenience. As

the news spreads this will undoubtedly become the most cost effective investment that the city has so far made in public transport. This should encourage the provision of several new BRT routes covering more or the city especially areas where many people use buses to travel to work. As an increasing number of people begin to commute to work rather than having accommodation in or near their work units the transport priorities have to be dealing with this rush-hour flow of commuters and further development of BRT would seem to me to be only feasible solution for Jinan, given the huge cost of providing alternatives.

The air quality in Jinan is not ideal to say the least. The car has become a menace and not a convenience to cities all over the world. The provision of BRT will not solve all of Jinan's traffic or pollutionproblems, but persuading more and more people to use this fast and efficient method of moving across the city wouldmake a major contribution. Imagine a scenario where some 6000 people at any given moment are travelling in comfort at about 20 kph along six dedicated BRT lanes in low-emission technology vehicles instead of even 600 of them each in their own car sitting frustrated and polluting in yet another hopeless traffic jam. Imagine that and you can see why I am so happy to experience the arrival of BRT and so hopeful that it will make Jinan an even more delightful place in which to live. As car drivers sit there and watch us flashing past, my message to them is: don't be jealous of us, just come and join us.

前幾天，我經(jīng)歷了一次絕妙的體驗。那恐怕是我有生以來第一次感覺到自己很有優(yōu)越感。是這樣的，那天，由歷山路從北向南，我第一次乘坐2路BRT公交車，看見另一個車道上的汽車堵得排起了長龍。那些司機(jī)們很快便失去了耐性，他們開的那些不耐煩的大家伙們更是不停的向空氣里排放難聞的氣體。作為一個不喜歡開車的人，一個快樂的步行者，以及一個熱衷于公共交通工具的人，一想到我的這趟行程才花了一塊錢，而那些開車的人不但寸步難行，還要付出比我更多的花費(fèi)，就有點幸災(zāi)樂禍。

BRT，也就是快速交通系統(tǒng)，是濟(jì)南新建的新型城市公共客運(yùn)系統(tǒng)。在中國一些大城市中已經(jīng)投入使用有幾年了。最重要的一點是“快速客運(yùn)”這一概念：這意味著乘客們可以快速高效地穿過市區(qū)。有些地方是通過高速鐵路和單軌鐵路來實現(xiàn)這一概念的。不過最經(jīng)濟(jì)的便是修建一條專門的公共汽車行駛路線，以便讓公共汽車在無數(shù)汽車的鳴笛聲中自由任意地行進(jìn)。這就是濟(jì)南如今已建成并投入使用的BRT。東西線已經(jīng)在四月份就開始運(yùn)營了，每小時可承載10000名乘客。在高峰期，每次就能運(yùn)送800名乘客。試想一下，如果是轎車的話——即使一輛轎車?yán)镒膫€人——會是什么樣啊！BRT主要在高架橋底下行駛10公里的路程，幾乎不影響其他交通。南北線是從長途汽車站（中國客流量最大的汽車站），沿著一條特別修建的中心路線一直到經(jīng)十路和二環(huán)東路的交界處。這是一條引起爭議的路線，也同樣引起了我那些開大家伙的朋友們的嫉妒心。駕駛員們似乎都會設(shè)想每個城市的每條路都是專門為他們而建的，事實上根本不可能。在中國，至少普通老百姓還是沒車的多一些。他們也有權(quán)要求享受到方便的公共設(shè)施，畢竟政府修建的道路是用老百姓的納稅錢建成的。如果這意味著如今他們可以坐在舒適的BRT上在城市中穿梭，那么想必這不僅是可以接受的，還是值得擁有的。

最近，濟(jì)南很多主要道路都在施工，給汽車司機(jī)、步行者們和像我一樣乘坐公共汽車的人帶來很多的不便。然而，更寬更安全的道路修好之后，所有這些不便都會有所回報。最大的受益者就是汽車司機(jī)了。公共汽車道和自行車道為沒車的人提供了不少方便，不過BRT車道是最快的路線了。每個人都承認(rèn)濟(jì)南現(xiàn)在滿馬路都是車。只有效率更高，費(fèi)用更低的公共交通工具才能在速度和方便程度上比得上轎車。這樣才能讓有車的人在沒什么重要事情的情況下選擇把車留在家里。BRT還是有希望在一段時間之后解決這一問題的。

世界上其他國家的經(jīng)驗是，隨著人們對這一客運(yùn)系統(tǒng)認(rèn)知度的提高，使用它的乘客會越來越多。因為這是一個新的事物，人們需要時間了解它的好處。到現(xiàn)在為止我坐過的BRT一直沒有滿座，我想可能是大多數(shù)的人還不太知道BRT是什么，更別說了解它帶來的方便了。隨著新聞的不斷宣傳，BRT將毋庸置疑地成為這個城市迄今為止在公共交通方面最有效的投入了。這將促使更多新的BRT路線出現(xiàn)在人們每天坐公共汽車去上班的路上。如今，越來越多的人開始寧愿花很長的時間去上班而不愿意在單位附近租房子住，因此，交通部門最需要解決的是，怎樣處理這些在高峰期花長時間往返于上下班的人的問題。我認(rèn)為對濟(jì)南來說，增加更多的BRT是唯一可行的辦法——投入龐大的資金為乘客提供可以選擇的機(jī)會。

說實話，濟(jì)南的空氣質(zhì)量不是很理想。如今，在全世界范圍內(nèi)，汽車尾氣都是造成環(huán)境污染的一大元兇，也不能為城市交通帶來任何方便。BRT的出現(xiàn)將解決濟(jì)南所有的交通和污染問題。不過說服更多的市民乘坐BRT——這個又快又高效的交通工具，恐怕是給濟(jì)南幫了個大忙了。想象一下吧，6000名乘客可以在同一時間內(nèi)，沿著6條BRT專線，坐在舒適的時速20公里又無污染的汽車?yán)铮谶@個城市里穿行。另一個場景，他們中的最多600人，每個人在自己的小轎車?yán)?，在讓人絕望的交通堵塞和嚴(yán)重污染的空氣中，煩躁地等待前行。想想以上兩個場景，就不難理解為什么我乘坐BRT那么開心，也非常希望BRT可以將濟(jì)南變?yōu)楦m合居住的美麗城市。當(dāng)看到汽車司機(jī)們無奈地坐在車?yán)锟粗覀兗柴Y而過的時候，我真想跟他們說：“別再嫉妒我們啦，快點加入我們吧！”