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Asia: Driving in Vietnam: Four wheels good, two wheels better
亚洲：驾驶在越南：四个轮子不错，两个轮子更好
A proliferation of cars threatens to clog the country’s big cities.
激增的汽车即将塞满了越南的大城市。
Cars and motorbikes are banned from the old heart of Hoi An, a pretty tourist town in central Vietnam.
会安，越南美丽的旅游城市，老城的中心禁止汽车和摩托车通行。
When the country’s newish prime minister paid a visit, he obligingly travelled on foot.
越南新任国家总理来访，他愉快地在此步行。
But as Nguyen Xuan Phuc strode manfully around, his motorcade crept along behind him.
然而阮春福在前面雄赳赳大步流星，身后却是缓缓徐行车队。
Outraged netizens disseminated photos of the incident, forcing Mr Phuc to apologise—a rare step for a senior official in Vietnam’s authoritarian regime.
气愤的越南网民散布了该事件照片并要求他道歉——要员道歉，这在越南独裁体制下还是很罕见的。
Not many Vietnamese can afford a fleet of blacked-out saloons.
越南有能力购买纯黑色高档轿车的人群还不多。
But car-ownership in the Communist country is soaring, bringing worries about pollution and congestion.
但在这个共产主义国度里，有车一族正在飙升，引起大家对大气污染和交通拥堵的担忧。
Sales of cars, vans and lorries rose 55% by volume in 2015, albeit from a low base; so far this year they are up another third.
2015年，越南小车、货车和卡车的销量上涨55%，尽管基数很低；本年度截至目前，销量再度增加1/3。
Most went to Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, which between them house about half of Vietnam’s urban population.
汽车销量增长主要来自首都河内和胡志明市。全国近一半的城镇人口都居住在这两个城市。
Compared with its choked neighbours, Vietnam’s big cities are relatively uncongested.
越南的大城市相对没有其周边国家的城市那么拥堵。
The country’s 40m or so motorbikes terrify pedestrians, but can thunder 10-abreast along thoroughfares as well as worm down dark alleyways.
约四千万的摩托车让行人毛骨悚然，但是这些摩托车可以十辆并排轰隆疾驰在大道上，也可以缓缓在黑胡同里蠕动。
Cars, by contrast, block up the pipes.
不像汽车堵成一条长龙。
Only 9% of land in the heart of Hanoi is given over to primary and secondary roads, compared with 32% in Manhattan.
河内仅有9%的土地用以建设主要和次级道路，而迈哈顿道路占地32%。
The World Bank in 2011 calculated that if car-use were to reach even the moderate level seen in nearby Malaysia, Vietnam’s capital would grind to a complete halt.
世界银行2011年计算，如果越南的汽车用量和邻居马来西延的中等水平的持平，越南的资产将会完全停止增长。
The government is conflicted, says Arve Hansen, an academic.
政府是矛盾的，Arve Hansen，一位学者这样评论到。
It champions the local car-assembly industry but also slaps stiff taxes on buyers, in part for fear of jams.
政府一方面支持汽车制造产业，另一方面又因为担心拥堵，征收严苛的购车税。
A suite of recent trade deals will eventually limit authorities’ power to control car-use through tariffs.
近期的一系列交易终将限制政府通过收税来控制用车的权利。
A pact with South-East Asian neighbours, which comes into full force in 2018, could see cheap cars pour in from Thailand.
一份越南和东南亚国家的合约将在2018年生效，意味着大量便宜的汽车从泰国涌入。
The appeal of buying a car may grow even as Vietnam’s roads clog up.
尽管越南交通拥堵，人们买车的热情却持续高涨。
The growing risk of collision with a car is making motorcycling more dangerous.
随着发生摩托车和汽车相撞风险不断增加，选择摩托车出行变得更加危险。
Motorists who know they will end up in jams prefer to do it in air-conditioned vehicles than perched on sweaty bike seats.
始终都要堵车，摩托车一族也钟情于空调汽车，不愿干坐在汗涔涔的自行车座上。
Longer travel times are also putting Vietnamese off buses, which were anyway hot and unreliable.
旅途漫长也是让人们放弃公共汽车的原因，公共汽车不仅热还不准时。
Use of Hanoi’s underfunded public buses has dropped 14% in a year.
因此河内缺乏资金的公交客车的使用率在一年降低14%。
New urban rail systems should help a little.
新建轨道有助于缓解城市交通压力。
The first of at least six metro lines is under construction in Ho Chi Minh City; two elevated railways are being built in Hanoi.
胡志明市计划建设至少六条地铁线路，目前正在建设第一条；河内正在修建两条轻轨。
But it will take years to complete these networks, and the fast-growing cities they will serve are transforming as they are built.
然而这些交通网络数年才能建完，轨道建设的同时城市却在不断转变。
Hanoi inparticular is sprawling, helped along by policies that encourage local authorities to build outward, rather than up.
尤其是河内，在鼓励政府向外建设而不是向上建设的政策下，无序扩张。
City officials are making do.
市政府官员也在努力。
Bigwigs in Ho Chi Minh City talk of narrowing pavements to widen roads; Hanoi insists more and better buses are revving up.
胡志明市要员考虑缩小建设来扩宽道路，河内坚持快速发展更多更好的汽车。
In June cadres in the capital said they thought improvements in public transport would eventually allow them to ban Hanoi’s 5m motorbikes from the heart of the city.
六月，国家干部称他们考虑改善公共交通，最终可以限制河内市中心的5百万摩托车。
It would be better to ban cars.
汽车限行更好。
译文属译者说外刊
