從地鐵通勤族說起 看東西方生活方式大不同
Lin Yong has never been so excited about Dec 30–not because of the New Year celebrations, but because of the convenience of going to work he will enjoy afterwards.
對於林勇（音譯）來說，12月30日是個激動人心的好日子，並不是因爲要喜迎新年，而是因爲從此以後他上班更加方便了。The 26-year-old Beijinger lives in the east part of Chaoyang district and works at the Apple store in Sanlitun. Every morning, he takes the Batong Line to get to Line 1 and then transfers to Line 10 at Guomao station, one of the busiest interchange stations in the Beijing subway system.
這位26歲的北京人住在朝陽區東部，在三里屯蘋果店工作。每天早上，他都會搭乘地鐵八通線轉1號線，然後在國貿站換乘10號線，那裏是北京地鐵最繁忙的換乘站之一。After Dec 30, Lin can take Line 6, one of the new lines that will start operating that day, and transfer to Line 10 at a less crowded station. “I think it’s good news for commuters like me, because it saves us a lot of time and energy,” Lin said.
12月30日，北京地鐵多條新建線路開始正式通車運營，6號線便是其中之一。從此以後，林勇便可以乘坐地鐵6號線到一個人流相對不那麼擁擠的車站去換乘10號線。林勇表示：“我想這對於像我這樣的通勤族來說是個好消息，這可以爲我們節省不少的時間和精力。”
Commuters like Lin, who lives in a suburban area and works in the city center, are common in China’s metropolises, such as Beijing and Shanghai. They are the main demographic to use subways in China.
在北京、上海這些大城市中，像林勇這樣住在市郊、在市中心工作的通勤一族十分普遍。在國內，他們是乘坐地鐵的主要人羣。Zhang Hongke is a professor of transportation engineering at Beijing Jiaotong University. His recent study into metropolitan commuting trends shows that, in Chinese cities with a well-developed subway system, more than half of people who commute to work use the subway–and a big part of them live quite far away from their workplace.
近日，北京交通大學運輸工程系教授張宏科（音譯）針對大城市通勤趨勢進行研究，研究結果顯示在一些地鐵系統較發達的中國城市，半數以上的人乘坐地鐵通勤，且終於大部分人都住在離單位很遠的地方。“In China’s big cities, as housing prices and rents in the central city increase rapidly, many people, even white-collar workers, are choosing to live in suburban areas,” Zhang said. “In those cities, business and working areas are relatively grouped. So the subway becomes the most convenient and economical way of getting to work.”
張宏科表示：“在中國的大城市中，隨着中心區域房價和房租的飛漲，很多人，甚至也有一些白領都選擇住在市郊。在這些城市中，商業區和寫字樓較爲集中。這樣一來，地鐵就成爲最便捷、也是最經濟的一種通勤方式。”Zhang added that the expansive subway systems of big cities are a good example for how subways extend a city’s reach.
張教授還表示，大城市中日益擴大的地鐵系統也有力的證明了城市範圍因地鐵而不斷擴張。Although the lifestyle of “living in suburban areas and working in the city” also applies in the West, the demographic of subway commuters is slightly different.
儘管在西方，人們也選擇“居住在市郊，工作在城區”的生活方式，但地鐵通勤人羣卻略有不同。Take New York City for example. According to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), in 2011, of those working in Manhattan, the main employment center in New York, a majority of 30 percent commute from within Manhattan, while 17 percent come from Queens and 16 percent from Brooklyn.
就拿紐約爲例。根據城市交通管理局的相關數據顯示，2011年，那些在紐約白領集中地——曼哈頓工作的通勤一族中，居住在曼哈頓的佔30%之多，17%的人來自皇后區，16%的人則來自布魯克林區。Those commuters who take the subway within Manhattan also include some quite wealthy middle-class citizens who can afford a car and live in a big house in a suburban area.
那些住在曼哈頓的地鐵通勤族之間也有一些十分富足的中產階級，他們買得起汽車，住在郊區的大房子裏。“There’s cheap, even free parking space outside metropolises like New York and London. They take the subway from there,” John Mackey, manager of New York City Transit, told The New Yorker. “It’s really about convenience. There are almost 150 metro stations in Manhattan, people can go anywhere anytime.”
紐約市捷運局局長約翰•麥基在接受《紐約客》採訪時表示：“像紐約、倫敦這樣的大城市市郊都設有價格低廉、甚至是免費的停車場。他們在那乘地鐵上班。一切都是爲了便捷。曼哈頓有大約150個地鐵站，人們可以隨時去任何地方。”Zhang thinks things would be different here. “In China, if someone can afford a car, they wouldn’t take public transportation that often, because it’s crowded and the stations are sometimes far from their destination,” Zhang said.
在張宏科眼中，中國的情況則不同。他說：“在中國，人們一旦買得起汽車，就不會經常搭乘公共交通，一是因爲太過擁擠，二是因爲有時車站離目的地太遠。”Lin Yong agrees. “If I had a car I’d drive to work on most days,” Lin said. “But, as that won’t happen in the near future, a new subway line is good enough for me.”
林勇對此表示贊同。他說：“如果我有車的話，大多數時候就會開車上班。但目前這還不能實現，所以一條新的地鐵線對我來說已經足夠了。”
