VOA慢速英语:洛杉矶骑单车去上班流行起来
People in Los Angeles are known for their love of cars. The city is very large, and its public transportation is either slow or limited. So people driveeverywhere. Traffic can be heavy all day. But now, a growing group ofbicyclists are trying to get people out of their cars and on bikes.
Devon Fitzgerald is a bicyclist. He says he has to be careful when he is ridinghis bike on the streets of Los Angeles.
“A lot of LA folks are in a rush, and it’s very easy to, for them to prioritize theirspeed over your safety.”
But although his bike ride to work can be dangerous, he prefers it over a car.
“I like the fact that it simplifies a lot of aspects of travel. For instance, I don’thave to worry about parking ever.”
Roger Rosas drives to work. He says bicycles are dangerous for cyclists anddrivers.
“There’s, you always have to make sure you look to the other side because ifyou’re gonna dodge this guy, see, cause you don’t want to do a hit and run.You can also get in a car crash as a result of that.”
To make cycling safer, some bicyclists who live and work near each other areriding to work together in what they call a “bike train.” Nona Varnado helpedcreated the group L.A. Bike Trains.
“You’re a big enough group that, you know, cars don’t, kind of have the samebehaviors if you were just one person. And you’re also with an experiencedcyclist.”
L.A. Bike Trains was launched in May 2013. The number of people riding in thebike trains -- and the number of routes around the city -- have been growing.
“We specifically design each route so that we avoid problem intersections.”
The routes range from seven to almost 32 kilometers long.
Herbie Huff is a transportation expert at the University of California LosAngeles. She says in recent years, city planners in Los Angeles have beenputting more bike lanes on roads that were designed for cars and trucks.
“The city has added more bike lanes in the last two fiscal years than in theprevious 30 fiscal years combined.”
Ms. Huff says bike lanes give cyclists options that they do not have with biketrains.
“With anything that runs on a fixed schedule -- whether it’s a bike train or atrain – there’s only so many people that can make that schedule.”
Nona Varnado, of L.A. Bike Trains, says there should be bike lanes that areseparated from car lanes.
“I think that we should have far greater infrastructure than a few little paint lineson the street.”
And she says bike trains can do what a bike lane cannot.
“We want people to develop that mental sense of security and confidence byriding together in a group.”
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