走进剑桥大学 第38期:校园单车行

Everywhere you turn in Cambridge there are people on bikes. The city has the highest level of cycling in the country. This is perhaps no surprise. The city is after all naturally suited for getting around by bike.

在剑桥，你随处可以看到骑自行车的人。剑桥是全国骑自行车出行人口最多的城市。这也没有什么值得奇怪的，这座城市非常适合骑自行车出行。

It is no exaggeration to describe Cambridge as being as flat as the proverbial pancake. The most significant inclines are railway bridges and crossings of the Cam. Only once you leave the city limits will you find anything that can be called a hill.

说剑桥地势如平底锅一样毫不夸张。坡度最明显的地方是铁路桥和横跨剑河的桥梁。只有你离开了市区，才能见到一些小山丘。

Cambridge's famous university is of course another factor in the popularity of cycling here. Colleges can be dotted anywhere within a three kilometer radius of the city centre. Forget the stereotype of students being hard up and thus not able to afford cars. The simple truth is that bikes are the quickest，easiest and most straight forward way to get between lectures, the library and the rowing club.

剑桥市有著名的大学当然是骑车人口众多的另外一个原因。距市中心3公里范围内，分布着剑桥的各个学院。不要以为学生们是缺钱，买不起汽车。其实，这仅仅是因为骑自行车来往于课堂，图书馆和划船俱乐部之间最为方便快捷。

Besides, Cambridge City is very small, and a cycling ride within 40 minutes can virtually bring you to any corner of the city. As students of Cambridge from different parts of UK and the world scatter in various colleges，which are located in various communities or blocks of the city, they usually have to travel long distances in order to attend classes or lectures. Thus cycle naturally becomes the major mode of transportation here, for which someone even named Cambridge the “Cycle City”. For this reason, Cambridge has a distinguishing feature from other cities—apart from the conventional two traffic lanes on the road, it has separate cycle routes.

此外，剑桥市非常小，骑自行车40分钟之内就到达城市的任何一个地方。由于剑桥大学的学生很多来自英国各地、世界各地，散落地住在各个学院；而各个系分布在城市的各个街区，上课、听讲座经常要跑到很远的地方，自行车自然而然成为了这里的主要交通工具，有人甚至把剑桥叫“自行车城”。所以，不同于其他城市，剑桥在本来就只有两条车道的路上还要给自行车留出单独车道。

The narrow cycle routes are just next to the motor ways，without any segregation. The speed of cars are unbelievably fast to the Chinese, even a lumpish coach can travel at a speed above 100 km per hour on the general lanes of traffic. To many foreign students, cycling in Cambridge can be the most dangerous thing in the world.

窄窄的自行车道和机动车道紧挨着，之间没有任何隔离装置。汽车的速度在中国是难以想象的，连最笨重的长途汽车在普通车道上的行驶速度都达到100公里/小时以上；在很多外国学生看来，在剑桥骑车是世界上最危险的事。

But it's far from just the students who cycle in Cambridge. So do the school kids, the pensioners and the layabouts. As for all the workers in the city: apparently one in four commutes by bike. You see them amble by in their business suits, their builder's overalls and their nurse's uniforms. On a balmy summer evening, it's not unusual to see ladies pedalling out in summery frocks, gents riding down the street in bow ties. Racquets in hands, folks ride out to the sports centre.

在剑桥，骑车的不仅仅是学生。上学的小孩，老人和闲来无事的人都骑自行车。 全城的上班族约有1/4都骑自行车。你可以看到骑车的人有的一身正装，有的穿着工作服，还有的穿着护士服。在宣人的夏日夜晚，经常可以在街上看到穿连衣裙的女士或是打领结的男士骑着自行车穿梭往来。还有些人会带上球拍，去运动中心打球。

Cycling in Cambridge is not necessarily an activity in itself. In fact it's very much an aspect of everyday life.

骑车在剑桥不能被称为一项运动。实际上，它己经成为了人们日常生活的一部分。