从地铁通勤族说起 看东西方生活方式大不同

Lin Yong has never been so excited about Dec 30–not because of the New Year celebrations, but because of the convenience of going to work he will enjoy afterwards.

对于林勇（音译）来说，12月30日是个激动人心的好日子，并不是因为要喜迎新年，而是因为从此以后他上班更加方便了。

The 26-year-old Beijinger lives in the east part of Chaoyang district and works at the Apple store in Sanlitun. Every morning, he takes the Batong Line to get to Line 1 and then transfers to Line 10 at Guomao station, one of the busiest interchange stations in the Beijing subway system.

这位26岁的北京人住在朝阳区东部，在三里屯苹果店工作。每天早上，他都会搭乘地铁八通线转1号线，然后在国贸站换乘10号线，那里是北京地铁最繁忙的换乘站之一。

After Dec 30, Lin can take Line 6, one of the new lines that will start operating that day, and transfer to Line 10 at a less crowded station. “I think it’s good news for commuters like me, because it saves us a lot of time and energy,” Lin said.

12月30日，北京地铁多条新建线路开始正式通车运营，6号线便是其中之一。从此以后，林勇便可以乘坐地铁6号线到一个人流相对不那么拥挤的车站去换乘10号线。林勇表示：“我想这对于像我这样的通勤族来说是个好消息，这可以为我们节省不少的时间和精力。”

Commuters like Lin, who lives in a suburban area and works in the city center, are common in China’s metropolises, such as Beijing and Shanghai. They are the main demographic to use subways in China.

在北京、上海这些大城市中，像林勇这样住在市郊、在市中心工作的通勤一族十分普遍。在国内，他们是乘坐地铁的主要人群。

Zhang Hongke is a professor of transportation engineering at Beijing Jiaotong University. His recent study into metropolitan commuting trends shows that, in Chinese cities with a well-developed subway system, more than half of people who commute to work use the subway–and a big part of them live quite far away from their workplace.

近日，北京交通大学运输工程系教授张宏科（音译）针对大城市通勤趋势进行研究，研究结果显示在一些地铁系统较发达的中国城市，半数以上的人乘坐地铁通勤，且终于大部分人都住在离单位很远的地方。

“In China’s big cities, as housing prices and rents in the central city increase rapidly, many people, even white-collar workers, are choosing to live in suburban areas,” Zhang said. “In those cities, business and working areas are relatively grouped. So the subway becomes the most convenient and economical way of getting to work.”

张宏科表示：“在中国的大城市中，随着中心区域房价和房租的飞涨，很多人，甚至也有一些白领都选择住在市郊。在这些城市中，商业区和写字楼较为集中。这样一来，地铁就成为最便捷、也是最经济的一种通勤方式。”

Zhang added that the expansive subway systems of big cities are a good example for how subways extend a city’s reach.

张教授还表示，大城市中日益扩大的地铁系统也有力的证明了城市范围因地铁而不断扩张。

Although the lifestyle of “living in suburban areas and working in the city” also applies in the West, the demographic of subway commuters is slightly different.

尽管在西方，人们也选择“居住在市郊，工作在城区”的生活方式，但地铁通勤人群却略有不同。

Take New York City for example. According to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), in 2011, of those working in Manhattan, the main employment center in New York, a majority of 30 percent commute from within Manhattan, while 17 percent come from Queens and 16 percent from Brooklyn.

就拿纽约为例。根据城市交通管理局的相关数据显示，2011年，那些在纽约白领集中地——曼哈顿工作的通勤一族中，居住在曼哈顿的占30%之多，17%的人来自皇后区，16%的人则来自布鲁克林区。

Those commuters who take the subway within Manhattan also include some quite wealthy middle-class citizens who can afford a car and live in a big house in a suburban area.

那些住在曼哈顿的地铁通勤族之间也有一些十分富足的中产阶级，他们买得起汽车，住在郊区的大房子里。

“There’s cheap, even free parking space outside metropolises like New York and London. They take the subway from there,” John Mackey, manager of New York City Transit, told The New Yorker. “It’s really about convenience. There are almost 150 metro stations in Manhattan, people can go anywhere anytime.”

纽约市捷运局局长约翰•麦基在接受《纽约客》采访时表示：“像纽约、伦敦这样的大城市市郊都设有价格低廉、甚至是免费的停车场。他们在那乘地铁上班。一切都是为了便捷。曼哈顿有大约150个地铁站，人们可以随时去任何地方。”

Zhang thinks things would be different here. “In China, if someone can afford a car, they wouldn’t take public transportation that often, because it’s crowded and the stations are sometimes far from their destination,” Zhang said.

在张宏科眼中，中国的情况则不同。他说：“在中国，人们一旦买得起汽车，就不会经常搭乘公共交通，一是因为太过拥挤，二是因为有时车站离目的地太远。”

Lin Yong agrees. “If I had a car I’d drive to work on most days,” Lin said. “But, as that won’t happen in the near future, a new subway line is good enough for me.”

林勇对此表示赞同。他说：“如果我有车的话，大多数时候就会开车上班。但目前这还不能实现，所以一条新的地铁线对我来说已经足够了。”