骑自行车，美化城市

有人认为他们解决了大城市的交通堵塞和空气污染问题。他们的答案就是：自行车或称‘单车’。

每天在许多城市里，几百个人都骑自行车上班。在纽约，一些骑自行车的甚至成立‘骑自行车，美化城市’的小组。他们声称，如果更多人骑自行车，就将减少在城市中心的汽车，因此汽车引擎排放的脏空气也会下降了。

几年来，这个集团一直尝试令城市政府支持骑自行车的人。譬如，他们要城市在一些主要的道路给自行车拨特殊的车道，因为汽车和自行车在一样的车道上会遭到车祸。‘骑自行车，美化城市’觉得如果有特定的车道，更多人会选择骑自行车。

但是，一个自行车道都没创造。不是每一个人都同意这个看法。有人说自行车道会减缓交通。有的大街上的店长也不喜欢这个意见，他们说如果减少了交通，商机也会减少。再说，大多数居民不能骑自行车因为他们的住宅离城市中心住太远了。

城市政府还没决定怎么处理，想让大家都满意。周末，中央公园，纽约里最大一片的开阔地，禁止汽车进来，只是自行车可以用道路。‘骑自行车，美化城市’却说这不够，继续战斗在中心开立自行车道。

Bike for a Better City

Some people think they have an answer to the troubles of automobile crowding and dirty air in large cities. Their answer is the bicycle or “bike”.

In many cities, hundreds of people ride bicycles to work every day. In New York City, some bike riders have even formed a group called “Bike for a Better City”. They claimed that if more people ride bicycles to work there would be fewer automobiles in the downtown section of the city and therefore less dirty air from car engines.

For several years this group has been trying to get the city government to help bicycle riders. For example, they want the city to draw special lanes for bicycles only on some of the main streets, because when bicycle riders must use the same lanes as cars, there are accidents. “Bike for a Better City” feels that if there were special lanes, more people would use bikes.

But no bicycle lanes have been drawn. Not everyone thinks this is a good idea. They say it will slow traffic. Store owners on the main streets don’t like the idea. They say that if there is less traffic, they will have less business. And most people live too far from the downtown area to travel by bike.

The city government has not yet decided what to do. It wants to keep everyone happy. On weekends, Central Park – the largest piece of open ground in New York – is closed to cars, and the roads may be used by bicycles only. But “Bike for a Better City” says that this is not enough and keeps fighting to get bicycle lanes downtown.