老外看中国：共享单车

老外在中国，对中国的人和事有什么看法？《中国日报》Second Thought栏目系列文章带你走近老外的真实内心世界。

Everywhere you look in Beijing these days, bicycles stand propped against walls and lined in rows stretched across sidewalks. Pedestrians have taken the development in their stride, dodging only a bit more often or widely to the right or left to skirt the obstructions.

最近在北京的大街小巷都可以看到，自行车停靠在墙边，排列延伸到人行道上。而对此现象行人也不觉异样，走在人行道上总能灵活绕开这些占地儿的自行车。

Lines of blue, of yellow, of silver and orange bikes cut off their access from the no man's land of the car-filled streets to the relative safety of the curb. Piles of bikes amass in seemingly random patterns across the city.

这些蓝色、黄色、银色和橙色的自行车切断了从来往车辆川流不息的大街上到相对安全的路边的通道。城市到处可见横七竖八停放的自行车。

Isn't it wonderful!

是不是很惊讶！

I've loved bicycles ever since I was 6 years old. My big sister let me try hers. We lived on a short dead-end street that sloped gently downhill toward a chain-link fence. I climbed on the peddles－the seat was too high－and stood stiffly while momentum carried me toward the fence.

我从6岁开始就爱上了骑自行车。那时我大姐允许我骑她的自行车，我们住的那条小街没有出口，向下曲折蜿蜒，尽头是铁丝网栅栏。因为车座太高上不去，我就直挺挺地站在脚蹬上面，利用一股冲劲儿从高处向栅栏溜下去。

Realizing just before I would hit it that I didn't know how to brake, I turned sharply and traced a tight circle until the bike finally slowed and fell over.

就在撞到栅栏千钧一发之际，我突然意识到我还不会刹车，于是就一个急转弯扭转车头，在地上蹭出一个圆圈，让自行车慢慢停下来，最后倒在地上。

I was hooked.

从这件事以后我就迷恋上了骑自行车。

Bikes have always been part of my life, until now, when I find myself without a bike of my own.

自行车一直是我生命中的一部分，直到现在，我发现我竟然没有一辆属于自己的自行车。

Welcome the age of bike-sharing.

欢迎进入共享单车时代。

The idea is not new. It has existed in some form or another in Europe for years.

共享经济并不是一件新事物，早在多年前，欧洲就兴起了这样或那样的共享经济模式。

I recall a common joke in Amsterdam in the early 1980s was that if you needed a bike you could always take one from the hundreds left abandoned at the Dutch Railways' Central Station. But this was something different.

我想起了上世纪80年代流行在阿姆斯特丹的一个小笑话，假如需要一辆自行车，你总是可以在中央火车站几百辆遗弃的自行车堆里满意而归。不过，这与共享单车并不同。

In the 1960s, a Dutch counterculture movement called the Provo launched its White Bike Plan. The "asphalt terrorism" of motorists had lasted long enough, they proclaimed.

上世纪60年代，荷兰的反主流文化运动团体Provo发起了“白色单车计划”，他们声称汽车司机的“马路恐怖主义”已经让人受够了。

Activists painted 50 bicycles white and left them unlocked on the street, after an opening ceremony alongside a well-known statue in a square near the Royal Palace of Amsterdam.

在阿姆斯特丹王宫附近一个广场上的某著名的雕像旁边举行了启动仪式之后，Provo积极分子便将50辆自行车喷刷成白色，不上锁放在街道上供人免费骑乘。

The group offered "emancipation" through "the first free, collective means of transportation", but their plan failed. Who would have guessed it was illegal to leave a bicycle unlocked in a public place? No sooner had the ceremony finished than the police impounded the white bikes.

该团体第一次提出了“免费、共享交通工具”的解放理念，然而这一计划最终失败。谁会想到不上锁的单车放在公共场所是违法的呢？启动仪式刚结束，警察就扣押了这批白色自行车。

In 1974, a successful bike-sharing program began in La Rochelle, France, and it continues to this day.

1974年，一个成熟的共享单车计划在法国拉罗谢尔诞生，并一直延续到今天。

Similar programs have since proliferated throughout Europe－perhaps President Xi Jinping witnessed during his recent state visit to Finland the workings of Helsinki's city bike system, which reserves a role for the bicycle in the capital's public transportation system.

自那以后，类似的共享经济开始在欧洲范围扩散。习近平主席在最近对芬兰进行国事访问期间或许也亲眼目睹了赫尔辛基城市单车系统的高效运转，单车在芬兰首都的公共交通系统中始终占有着一席之地。

China has more than kept apace of the global trend of bike-sharing. I started noticing bikes for rent in Beijing maybe a year or two ago. First, they were grouped in racks, but later companies emerged whose bikes could be found wherever the last users left them.

中国早就紧跟全球单车共享这一趋势。我在一到两年前开始关注单车租赁情况。起先，这些自行车分门别类整齐排放在一起，但不久后，共享单车公司开始出现，无论上一位使用者把单车停放在哪，都能找到踪迹。

The first bikes looked flimsier, too, but most now they look indestructible.

第一批单车看起来非常容易遭到破坏，不过，现在的大部分单车都变得比较坚固。

It all happened so fast, what will next year bring?

一切都发展得如此迅猛，明年又将会有哪些新变化呢？

You have to wonder if car owners in Beijing won't tire of sitting in traffic jams and join the trend.

假如北京的车主对交通拥堵并不感到疲倦，而是依旧成为浩浩荡荡堵车大军中的一员，这时你就一定会想这个问题。

作者：John Lydon