骑自行车的１１个理由

Ｊａｓｏｎ　Ｓｈａｒｐ

In the recent two months I have been experimenting with healthy living, and I found that having a bike makes healthy living a whole lot easier. What is more surprising though is that by riding my bike daily to get places, I see many parts of life in a completely different light. Originally I thought that buying a bike was simply buying another means of transportation, but little did I expect that I would experience a new way of living.

近两个月来,我都在体验健康的生活方式,我发现有辆自行车可以让健康的生活方式变得更容易。更令人称奇的是,每天以自行车代步,我都会从一个完全不同的角度来看待生活的方方面面。起初,我以为买辆自行车仅仅是换种交通工具,却从没想过自己即将体验一种新的生活方式。

Below are 11 advantages of riding a bike that I have noticed in the past few weeks.

在过去几个星期,我发现了骑自行车的以下11个优点。

1) Get to know the city like you never did before. When you ride a bike, you get a real feel for the size of the city that you are in. In a car or on the subway there is only a time measurement, but by bike you can feel the size not only by time but by space because you are peddling. Of course if you walked everywhere you would get a similar feeling; however, walking is too slow to be practical. Previously, Beijing felt like an impossibly huge city. Now, I feel it getting smaller and smaller the more I ride. Within 2 weeks of biking, I got to know every bridge and nearly every street on the north side of the city.

1)重新认识城市,就像你从未了解过一样。骑自行车时你会真正感受到所居住城市的规模。坐汽车和地铁只是用时间来衡量,而骑自行车你不仅通过时间还能通过空间来感受城市的大小,因为你在不停地蹬车。当然,你步行到任何地方都会有类似的感觉,但是走路太慢,不切实际。之前我感觉北京是一座大无边际的城市。现在,骑车去过的地方越多,就感觉它像是变小了。两周的骑车生活,我开始了解城北的每座桥梁、每条街道。

2) Save money. A bike might go for between $50 and $100, but you save money everyday on other things. In Beijing, it is common to take taxis or the subway everywhere. The subway is 2RMB each way, which makes 4 RMB per day. You'll earn the price of your bike back in around half a year. Any 10-15 RMB taxi (close distances) will be easy to reach by bike. I used to take these 2-3x a week, coming in at around 100 RMB a week. Within 2 months I will have made my money back on my purchase. This is all on top of gas savings and parking savings for if you drive often. After that, lifetime savings are yours to keep!

2)省钱。一辆自行车可能会花50-100美元,但你可以因此节省其它的开销。在北京,打的或坐地铁是很平常的事情。地铁单程是2块,这样每天就要4块,骑自行车的话半年左右你就把自行车钱赚回来了。花10-15块打的所行驶的短程距离,如果骑自行车很快就到了。过去,我一周打的2-3次,花费大概是100块。2个月内,我就把买自行车的钱省下来了。最重要的是,你骑自行车可以节省燃料和停车费。并因此获得一生的积蓄!

3) Get exercise. Obviously any movement is exercise. Riding a bike takes a lot more movement than pressing the gas peddle.

3)运动。很显然任何活动都是运动。骑自行车可比踩油门运动得更多。

4) Relax. This one may seem a little counter intuitive to most people, as driving in an air-conditioned car with your choice of music seems relaxing, but it isn't. Riding a bike slows life down and gets you outside in nature (or closer at least) with the wind blowing and the sun shining. On top of that, exercise itself is stress relieving. Ive found myself a lot more relaxed in the past few weeks.

4)放松。这一点可能与大多数人的直觉背道而驰——开着车,吹着空调,放点音乐似乎更惬意。但事实并非如此。骑自行车会减缓生活的节奏,在风儿吹拂和太阳照耀下,让你接近(至少是更接近)自然。最重要的是,运动本身就能减轻压力。在过去数星期中,我发现自己更加放松了。

5) Slow life down. Get out of the rush of the day and slow yourself down. Biking isn't so slow that you can't run errands, but it's slow enough that you have time to think and feel rather than worry. Small changes in life tend to have cascading effects, so by slowing down one part of your life you may find that the stress in other parts of your life just isn't worth it. Going from point A to point B doesn't have to be a rush. Take your time.

5)减缓生活节奏。摆脱繁忙的一天,减缓节奏。用自行车代步很慢,不宜用来做一些跑腿的事,但是这样的速度使你有时间去思考和感受,而不是焦虑不安。生活中的微小变化往往能起连锁反应,当你放慢部分生活步调时,就会发现生活中有些方面的压力并不值得一提。从一个点到另一个点不必如此匆忙,你可以慢慢来。

6) Freedom of Movement. Walking is too slow and a car is too cumbersome. A bike offers you a healthy balance in the middle, where you get speed and mobility. Going half a mile to four miles no longer becomes a hassle. Also, in a car you are limited to places that have parking spots. A bike has no such limit. By foot you can't go on the freeway - a bike can. A car can't go through the park - a bike can. It feels liberating owning a bike. And hey, if you want to stop and walk, you can park anywhere and just start walking. You could also ride to the subway, park, etc.

6)行动自由。走路太慢,而汽车过于笨重。自行车就刚刚好,同时兼备了速度和灵活性,为你提供一种健康平衡。走半英里到四英里不再是个麻烦。此外,如果开车,你常被限制在有停车位的地方,自行车却没有这种限制。在高速公路上你不能徒步行走——自行车可以;汽车无法通过公园——自行车可以。拥有自行车像就获得了解放。而且,如果你想停下来走一走,你可以随时随地停车散步,你还可以骑自行车去坐地铁,去公园或是别的地方。

7) Environmentally friendly. It's man-powered. Save the planet a little bit of exhaust. Hey, it might just be enough to save us all.

7)保护环境。骑自行车是人工动力的。少点废气可以拯救地球。嘿,这可能足以拯救我们所有人。

8)Expand your concept of 'my neighborhood'. Before I started biking regularly, getting to the end of the street was a 15 minute walk, and thus quite a hassle. I only made the 15 minute walk to restaurants at the end of the street rarely, especially since I had to make the walk back too, even though the choices of food there were good. Why would I when there was a lot of decent food just downstairs too? With a bike, what I consider close-by and easy to get to now has expanded even beyond down the street. Its expanded a few miles out, as even what before would be a taxi ride now is an easy bike ride. Suddenly there is a movie theater in my neighborhood.

8) 扩展“我家附近”的概念。在我常常骑自行车之前,走到街尾要花15分钟,这相当麻烦。即使街尾餐馆的食物好吃,我也很少花15分钟时间走路去街尾的餐馆,尤其还要花15分钟走路回去。如果楼下就有比较好的餐馆我就更加不可能去了。有了自行车之后,我对“我家附近”的定义就超出这条街了。现在已经延伸出好几公里,以前打的的路程现在骑自行车很容易就到了。突然,我发现我家附近还有一个电影院呢。

9) Its Fun. Biking is really enjoyable, especially going downhill. You can bike through the park, with your friends, or even cross country. Biking is not just a means of transportation.

9)有趣。骑自行车确实让人快乐,特别是骑下坡路的时候。你可以和朋友一块骑自行车逛公园,甚至是乡间小道。自行车可不仅仅是交通工具。

10) Become a part of your surroundings rather than just watching through a window. Driving a car with the air-conditioning on, windows rolled up, and music blazing makes the outside world seem surreal. You become wrapped up in your own little world, just passing through. There is no interaction besides the occasional honk. On a bike the surroundings are very real, and you can even interact with it. Just the other day at a stop light, I turned and talked to an old man on the bike next to me. Try being a part of the world for a week and notice the difference in your stress levels and happiness.

10 )成为周围环境的一部分,而不是仅仅一个旁观者。驾驶汽车,开着空调,打开车窗,听着音乐会让车外的世界仿如梦幻般的仙境。但其实你只是驾车经过,包裹在自己小小的世界里。除了偶尔按喇叭,再无与环境互动可言。在自行车上,环境非常真实,甚至可以与之互动。那天等红绿灯时,我转过身和旁边一位骑自行车的老人聊天。尝试用一个星期的时间成为现实世界的一部分,去感受你的受压水平和幸福指数的变化吧。

11) Stop the sedentary lifestyle. While a bike does have a chair, biking is not a sedentary activity. Going from bed to dining room chair to couch to car seat to work chair and back is a recipe for disaster. Throw in a little movement in your day. If you work too far away to bike, then bike to the store for small purchases, or bike to restaurants, or to the cinema. The more you move the more willing you will be to move and the further away from a sedentary dull life you will get.

11 )停止久坐的生活方式。尽管自行车有坐椅,但骑自行车并不是久坐活动。从床铺到餐厅椅子、沙发、汽车座椅再到工作椅,这些对背部来说无异于灾难。每天都要运动一小会儿。如果你工作的地方太远,不能骑自行车去上班,那也可以骑车去店子里买小东西,去餐厅吃饭,或去看电影。动的越多,你就越愿意动,越容易脱离久坐乏味的生活。

This post is not about getting rid of cars, buses, or subways. I still have to use a gas or electric powered vehicle to get across the city sometimes, as they are faster than a bike. Rather, I'm advocating for people to not solely rely on these forms of transportation. By riding a bike your life will change immensely, as you can see from the 11 points that I wrote above, and there are many more.

本文并不是说要摈弃汽车,公共汽车或地铁。我仍然不时要使用汽车或电动车穿梭于城市中,因为它们速度比自行车快。但是,我主张人们不能单靠这些形式的交通工具。正如你可以从以上我写的11点中看到,骑自行车将极大地改变你的生活,而且它还有更多的优点。

For those of you out there studying abroad in China, especially in Beijing, then getting a bike is a no-brainer. Chinese cities are extremely bike-friendly: I can travel from one side of the city to the other by bike in about the same time I could by car.

对那些在中国(尤其是在北京)的留学生而言,买辆自行车是毋庸置疑的事。在中国城市骑自行车非常方便:从城市的一端到另一端花的时间和搭车也差不多。