谁来拯救拯救伦敦的特色出租车

London: the world’s most visited city. Home to the red double-decker bus, Big Ben, Tower Bridge, Changing the Guard and the black taxi.

伦敦：全世界游客造访次数最多的城市。这里有红色双层巴士和黑色出租车、大本钟(Big Ben)和塔桥(Tower Bridge)，游客还可以观看卫兵交接仪式(Changing the Guard)。

That “most visited city” tag, which caused a recent flurry, is a little dubious. It is based on the International Passenger Survey, which is based on a sample of interviews with passengers coming and going from the UK. The Office for National Statistics candidly describes it as an “estimate”.

“游客造访次数最多的城市”这个略显可疑的头衔，近来引发了一阵风波。国际旅客调查(IPS)在抽样调查了出入英国的一些旅客之后，授予了伦敦这个头衔，但英国国家统计局(Office for National Statistics)坦率地称，这个结果只出于“大致的估计”。

Still, London draws millions of tourists and has become a global capital while maintaining its traditional symbols – except for that boxy black taxi, which is now the whatever-colour-you-like whatever-shape-you-can-think-of taxi. No city competing for tourists would throw away something as distinctive – except for London, which has.

尽管如此，伦敦确实吸引了数百万游客前来，在保持传统特色的同时，也成为了全世界的“首都”。但传统的老爷车式黑色出租车并未得到保留，如今伦敦街头的出租车五颜六色，车型也五花八门。任何一座致力于发展旅游业的城市都不会抛弃一项如此明显的特色，但伦敦却这么做了。

This week BYD, the Warren Buffett-backed Chinese carmaker, announced it would introduce “minicabs” into London, with the intention of eventually selling proper London taxis that are available not just for private hire but can ply the capital’s streets for fares.

得到沃伦•巴菲特(Warren Buffett)投资的中国汽车制造商比亚迪(BYD)近期宣布，它将向伦敦投放一批“迷你出租车”，并期望最终能卖出像样的伦敦“出租车”——不仅能提供私人出租车服务，还能充当行驶固定路线的收费大巴。

It is the latest of a slew of potential competitors to the London Taxi Company, builder of the TX4, the classy, roomy traditional-style cab that says “London” to potential visitors from all over the world.

伦敦出租车公司(London Taxi Company)面对许多竞争者，比亚迪是最新出现的一个。伦敦出租车公司生产的TX4气派、宽敞、造型仿佛“老爷车”，一直以来都是来自世界各地的游客心目中“伦敦”的代名词。

BYD follows Nissan and Metrocab – part of the Frazer-Nash group – which plan to sell taxis in London, and Mercedes-Benz, whose Vito people carriers are already ploughing through the capital as licensed taxis.

在比亚迪之前，日产(Nissan)和Frazer-Nash集团旗下的Metrocab也计划向伦敦出售出租车，而梅赛德斯-奔驰(Mercedes-Benz)旗下的威霆(Vito)乘用车已经获得出租车牌照、成为了伦敦街头的常见面孔。

The Vito taxis remind me of the Monty Python sketch in which John Cleese claims to have a cat licence and a post office clerk says: “That is a dog licence with the word ‘dog’ crossed out and ‘cat’ written in, in crayon.”

威霆出租车让我想起巨蟒剧团(Monty Python)表演中的一幕：约翰•克里斯(John Cleese)拿着一张猫证给邮局工作人员看，而邮局工作人员说，“这是张狗证，你只不过把狗字划掉，用铅笔写上了个猫字。”

The Vito vehicles are not London taxis. They are vans with yellow lighted “taxi” signs jammed on their roofs. They are infuriating proof that London has lost its way.

威霆出租车根本就不是“伦敦出租车”，只是顶上装着“出租车”标志灯的货车。看到这种出租车行驶在伦敦街头，我们只能恼火地得出这样一个结论：伦敦已经丧失了自己的风格。

There are mitigating factors. While the traditional London taxi is a design beauty, its manufacturer has had one financial prang after another. Once a consortium of manufacturers and dealers, it became a division of engineer Manganese Bronze, which went into administration and was taken over last year by China’s Geely. So the London Taxi Company cannot claim to be a reliable monopoly.

考虑到如下因素，伦敦丧失了自己风格也情有可原。首先，尽管传统的伦敦出租车在设计上堪称经典，但其制造商在财务上却灾祸不断。它原本是一家旗下兼有制造商和经销商的财团，后来却被锰铜控股(Manganese Bronze)收入旗下，接着锰铜控股进入破产保护程序，去年被中国的吉利(Geely)收购。因此，我们不能说伦敦出租车公司是个靠谱的垄断商。

Second, Boris Johnson, London’s mayor, is trying to cut the capital’s air pollution by insisting that its taxis produce zero emissions by 2018.

其次，伦敦市长鲍里斯•约翰逊(Boris Johnson)正努力改善伦敦的空气污染状况，他坚持要求伦敦的出租车在2018年底前实现零排放。

The offerings of BYD, Nissan and Metrocab will be electric, but then Geely says it plans to produce electric cabs too.

比亚迪、日产和Metrocab将推出电动出租车，不过吉利随后也表示，它也计划生产电动出租车。

So what is wrong with the new cabs? London has not achieved its international pre-eminence by standing still but its genius, indeed the British genius, is to build on what went before. The London Underground’s logo, trains and map have modernised without losing the look that made them so recognisable.

那么，新式出租车有何不好？伦敦之所以能取得如今的国际优势地位，并不是凭借其保持不变的能力，相反，伦敦的天赋在于能够在过去的基础上开拓创新。伦敦地铁(London Underground)在更新自己的logo、列车和路线图时，都一直保留着原有外观中那些可辨识度非常高的元素。

The same is true of London’s buses. The new Routemaster bus, one of Mr Johnson’s pet projects, updates previous models while, in design terms, quoting from them. Mr Johnson has banished the dreadful single-decker “bendy buses” from London’s streets.

伦敦的巴士也是一样。Routemaster巴士的更新，是约翰逊重点关注的项目。新式Routemaster巴士在更新旧车型的同时，也在设计上仿照了旧车型。约翰逊已将奇丑的单层“弯曲大巴”(bendy bus)赶出了伦敦街头。

Nissan seems to understand London’s way of doing things. Pictures of its NV200 taxi, which it plans to build in Coventry, home of the London taxi, suggest it will pay homage to the traditional design while giving its cab a modernised, but still recognisable, look.

日产似乎理解伦敦的风格。从图片上看，日产的NV200出租车将尊重传统设计。该车型外观看上去更加现代，但仍然能让人一眼认出这是伦敦出租车。日产计划在考文垂生产这款出租车，那里也是传统伦敦出租车的制造地。

Metrocab’s design appears to be based on similar principles, but BYD’s e6 looks set to follow the Mercedes “cat licence” route.

Metrocab的设计看上去也遵循类似的原则，但比亚迪的e6似乎打算走梅赛德斯式“猫证”路线。

This could have been avoided if Transport for London, which licenses taxis, had insisted on a recognisably London design for new entrants. That would not be over-intrusive for an authority that already specifies the distance between seats and the maximum tint of the windows.

如果负责颁发出租车牌照的伦敦运输局(TfL)明确规定，新加入的出租车必须遵循伦敦统一的设计，那么这种情况原本是可以避免的。鉴于该局已经规定了座位的宽度、车窗的最深颜色，规定出租车须遵循统一设计应该不算过分。

Failing that, it could have insisted that all London taxis be black. The traditional cabs have been allowed other colours for years now, but if taxis are permitted to be different shapes, they should all be London’s traditional colour. (Black Mercedes Vitos are marginally less ghastly than the blue or grey ones.)

尽管做不到这一点，伦敦运输局至少可以坚持要求所有伦敦出租车都为黑色。伦敦出租车早在多年前就可以有别的颜色了，但如果出租车的车型可以不必统一，那么就应该规定它们都为伦敦出租车传统的黑色。（黑色的梅赛德斯威霆虽然依然难看，但比蓝色或灰色的威霆看上去顺眼多了。）

New York’s taxi rules state that “the exterior of the vehicle must be painted taxi yellow” – and who could imagine the Big Apple agreeing to anything else?

纽约的出租车规定是，“车身颜色必须为出租车黄”。对外号“大苹果”的纽约而言，允许任何其他颜色的出租车出现在街头都是不可想象的。

We can still win London’s battle. If you approach a taxi rank or hail a cab in the street and an interloper offers you a ride, say: “Sorry, mate, I want a real London taxi.”

我们依然有望赢得这场“伦敦风格保卫战”。如果你在出租车招呼站打车，或在街上招手打车，而一辆“新式”出租车停在你面前，你可以说：“对不起，老弟，我想打一辆真正的伦敦出租车。”