体谅一下可怜行人.docVIP

体谅一下可怜行人 　　作者简介: 　　Findlay A. Nicol,来自苏格兰,过去十余年,一直在山东经济学院教授英语并长期担任本刊英语顾问。 　　 　　There has been a lot in the news recently about the moves that China is making to change into an urbanized society with half the population living in urban areas. When I read about this I think of one question and wonder where they are going to put all the people. I don’t mean where are they going to live ? I imagine that problem can be solved by the time they arrive ? but rather where are they going to walk? Being a pedestrian in the city is hard enough as it is without doubling the population. These new guys coming in from the countryside won’t be car owners (yet) and they will be so unskilled in the perils of urban life that they will fondly imagine that it is still possible to walk around this fine city. Well, I’m afraid that unless something remarkable happens in the next few years that will be not much more than a dream. 　　At one time there must have been some planning provision made in the cities for those who naively try to navigate the streets on foot. There are traces of such a system in the provision of crossings with little green and red men which are designed to tell you when it is safe to cross the street. Unfortunately the system has not been updated to take account of the volume of traffic in the streets today. There is still a ludicrous right turn on red rule which allows a stream of traffic to come pouring across the line of foot-passengers who foolishly think that they have some right of way. I understand from my Chinese friends that technically the rule does not actually allow the driver to mow down anybody who gets in his way but most motorists seem to be unaware of this. I sometimes feel that crossing the road at lights just gives the driver a target to aim at. I really don’t see how twice the number of pedestrians are ever going to get across at any of the busy junctions. 　　It will be even worse trying to negotiate the crowded pavements. It was a marvelous id