ＢＲＴ：将街道还给市民

⊙作者简介：芬德利·尼科尔,1997年来到济南,在山东经济学院教授课程

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.

前几天，我经历了一次绝妙的体验。那恐怕是我有生以来第一次感觉到自己很有优越感。是这样的，那天，由历山路从北向南，我第一次乘坐2路BRT公交车，看见另一个车道上的汽车堵得排起了长龙。那些司机们很快便失去了耐性，他们开的那些不耐烦的大家伙们更是不停的向空气里排放难闻的气体。作为一个不喜欢开车的人，一个快乐的步行者，以及一个热衷于公共交通工具的人，一想到我的这趟行程才花了一块钱，而那些开车的人不但寸步难行，还要付出比我更多的花费，就有点幸灾乐祸。

BRT，也就是快速交通系统，是济南新建的新型城市公共客运系统。在中国一些大城市中已经投入使用有几年了。最重要的一点是“快速客运”这一概念：这意味着乘客们可以快速高效地穿过市区。有些地方是通过高速铁路和单轨铁路来实现这一概念的。不过最经济的便是修建一条专门的公共汽车行驶路线，以便让公共汽车在无数汽车的鸣笛声中自由任意地行进。这就是济南如今已建成并投入使用的BRT。东西线已经在四月份就开始运营了，每小时可承载10000名乘客。在高峰期，每次就能运送800名乘客。试想一下，如果是轿车的话——即使一辆轿车里坐四个人——会是什么样啊！BRT主要在高架桥底下行驶10公里的路程，几乎不影响其他交通。南北线是从长途汽车站（中国客流量最大的汽车站），沿着一条特别修建的中心路线一直到经十路和二环东路的交界处。这是一条引起争议的路线，也同样引起了我那些开大家伙的朋友们的嫉妒心。驾驶员们似乎都会设想每个城市的每条路都是专门为他们而建的，事实上根本不可能。在中国，至少普通老百姓还是没车的多一些。他们也有权要求享受到方便的公共设施，毕竟政府修建的道路是用老百姓的纳税钱建成的。如果这意味着如今他们可以坐在舒适的BRT上在城市中穿梭，那么想必这不仅是可以接受的，还是值得拥有的。

最近，济南很多主要道路都在施工，给汽车司机、步行者们和像我一样乘坐公共汽车的人带来很多的不便。然而，更宽更安全的道路修好之后，所有这些不便都会有所回报。最大的受益者就是汽车司机了。公共汽车道和自行车道为没车的人提供了不少方便，不过BRT车道是最快的路线了。每个人都承认济南现在满马路都是车。只有效率更高，费用更低的公共交通工具才能在速度和方便程度上比得上轿车。这样才能让有车的人在没什么重要事情的情况下选择把车留在家里。BRT还是有希望在一段时间之后解决这一问题的。

世界上其他国家的经验是，随着人们对这一客运系统认知度的提高，使用它的乘客会越来越多。因为这是一个新的事物，人们需要时间了解它的好处。到现在为止我坐过的BRT一直没有满座，我想可能是大多数的人还不太知道BRT是什么，更别说了解它带来的方便了。随着新闻的不断宣传，BRT将毋庸置疑地成为这个城市迄今为止在公共交通方面最有效的投入了。这将促使更多新的BRT路线出现在人们每天坐公共汽车去上班的路上。如今，越来越多的人开始宁愿花很长的时间去上班而不愿意在单位附近租房子住，因此，交通部门最需要解决的是，怎样处理这些在高峰期花长时间往返于上下班的人的问题。我认为对济南来说，增加更多的BRT是唯一可行的办法——投入庞大的资金为乘客提供可以选择的机会。

说实话，济南的空气质量不是很理想。如今，在全世界范围内，汽车尾气都是造成环境污染的一大元凶，也不能为城市交通带来任何方便。BRT的出现将解决济南所有的交通和污染问题。不过说服更多的市民乘坐BRT——这个又快又高效的交通工具，恐怕是给济南帮了个大忙了。想象一下吧，6000名乘客可以在同一时间内，沿着6条BRT专线，坐在舒适的时速20公里又无污染的汽车里，在这个城市里穿行。另一个场景，他们中的最多600人，每个人在自己的小轿车里，在让人绝望的交通堵塞和严重污染的空气中，烦躁地等待前行。想想以上两个场景，就不难理解为什么我乘坐BRT那么开心，也非常希望BRT可以将济南变为更适合居住的美丽城市。当看到汽车司机们无奈地坐在车里看着我们疾驰而过的时候，我真想跟他们说：“别再嫉妒我们啦，快点加入我们吧！”