本篇文章共分 A-G 6 大段，從自行車共享計畫於 1965 年首先在荷蘭阿姆斯特丹提出以來，經歷了近 40 年後終於在巴黎開花結果，並且今日已經成為世界上各大城市常見的都市發展建設之一的過程，隨著最早推動者 Luud Schimmelpennink 的努力與堅持，帶領讀者認識這項目前已被視為是理所當然的交通建設發展的經過。

本篇考題英文原文與對應之中文翻譯整理如下。練習作答解題時若有對語意不清楚之處，請仔細查閱對照，以提升閱讀理解能力。

Bike-sharing Schemes 自行車共享計劃

1. 1965年提議的白色自行車

   How Dutch engineer Luud Schimmelpennink helped to devise urban bike-sharing schemes

   The original idea for an urban bike-sharing scheme dates back to a summer’s day in Amsterdam in 1965. Provo, the organization that came up with the idea, was a group of Dutch activists who wanted to change society. They believed the scheme, which was known as the Witte Fietsenplan, was an answer to the perceived threats of air pollution and consumerism. In the centre of Amsterdam, they painted a small number of used bikes white. They also distributed leaflets describing the dangers of cars and inviting people to use the white bikes. The bikes were then left unlocked at various locations around the city, to be used by anyone in need of transport.

   荷蘭工程師 Luud Schimmelpennink 如何幫助設計城市自行車共享計劃

   城市自行車共享計劃的最初想法可以追溯到 1965 年阿姆斯特丹的一個夏日。提出這個想法的組織普羅沃，是一群希望改變社會的荷蘭活動家。他們認為這個被稱為 Witte Fietsen 的計劃是對空氣污染和消費主義的威脅的一種回應。在阿姆斯特丹市中心，他們將少量的舊自行車塗成白色。他們還分發了描述汽車危險的傳單，並邀請人們使用這些白色自行車。然後，這些自行車被放置在城市的不同地點，沒有上鎖，供需要交通工具的人使用。

2. 最早的規劃

   Luud Schimmelpennink, a Dutch industrial engineer who still lives and cycles in Amsterdam, was heavily involved in the original scheme. He recalls how the scheme succeeded in attracting a great deal of attention – particularly when it came to publicising Provo’s aims – but struggled to get off the ground. The police were opposed to Provo’s initiatives and almost as soon as the white bikes were distributed around the city, they removed them. However, for Schimmelpennink and for bike-sharing schemes in general, this was just the beginning. ‘The first Witte Fietsenplan was just a symbolic thing,’ he says. ‘We painted a few bikes white, that was all. Things got more serious when I became a member of the Amsterdam city council two years later.’

   Luud Schimmelpennink 是一名荷蘭工業工程師，現在仍在阿姆斯特丹生活和騎自行車，他在了最初的計劃中參與甚深。他回憶說，該計劃如何成功地吸引了大量的注意力—特別是在宣傳普羅沃的目標時—但卻難以落地。警方反對普羅沃的倡議，幾乎就在白色自行車在城市中分發後，他們就把它們移走了。然而，對於 Schimmelpennink 和一般的自行車共享計劃來說，這只是一個開始。「第一個 Witte Fietsen 計畫只是一個象徵性的東西，」他說。「我們把幾輛自行車塗成白色，僅此而已。兩年後，當我成為阿姆斯特丹市議會的成員時，事情變得比較認真。」

3. 阿姆斯特丹議會反對

   Schimmelpennink seized this opportunity to present a more elaborate Witte Fietsenplan to the city council. ‘My idea was that the municipality of Amsterdam would distribute 10,000 white bikes over the city, for everyone to use,’ he explains. ‘I made serious calculations. It turned out that a white bicycle – per person, per kilometer – would cost the municipality only 10% of what it contributed to public transport per person per kilometer.’ Nevertheless, the council unanimously rejected the plan. ‘They said that the bicycle belongs to the past. They saw a glorious future for the car,’ says Schimmelpennink. But he was not in the least discouraged.

   Schimmelpennink 抓住了這個機會，向市議會提交了一份更詳盡的 Witte Fietsen 計劃。「我的想法是，阿姆斯特丹市政府將在全市範圍內分發 10,000 輛白色自行車，供所有人使用，」他解釋說。「我做了認真的計算。結果發現，一輛白色自行車—每人每公里—所花費的費用只相當於市政府為每人每公里公共交通所做貢獻的 10%。」然而，議會異口同聲拒絕了這個計劃。「他們說，自行車屬於過去。他們看到了汽車的光輝未來，」 Schimmelpennink 說。但他絲毫沒有感到氣餒。

4. 90年代的哥本哈根系統

   Schimmelpennink never stopped believing in bike-sharing, and in the mid-90s, two Danes asked for his help to set up a system in Copenhagen. The result was the world’s first large-scale bike-share programme. It worked on a deposit: ‘You dropped a coin in the bike and when you returned it, you got your money back.’ After setting up the Danish system, Schimmelpennink decided to try his luck again in the Netherlands – and this time he succeeded in arousing the interest of the Dutch Ministry of Transport. ‘Times had changed,’ he recalls. ‘People had become more environmentally conscious, and the Danish experiment had proved that bike-sharing was a real possibility.’ A new Witte Fietsenplan was launched in 1999 in Amsterdam. However, riding a white bike was no longer free; it cost one guilder per trip and payment was made with a chip card developed by the Dutch bank Postbank. Schimmelpennink designed conspicuous, sturdy white bikes locked in special racks which could be opened with the chip card – the plan started with 250 bikes, distributed over five stations.

   Schimmelpennink 從未停止過對自行車共享的信念，在 90 年代中期，兩個丹麥人請求他幫助在哥本哈根建立一個系統。其結果是世界上第一個大規模的自行車共享計劃。它以押金的方式運作：「你在自行車上投下一枚硬幣，當你歸還時，你就能拿回你的錢。」在建立了丹麥的系統後，Schimmelpennink 決定在荷蘭再次嘗試他的運氣—這一次他成功地引起了荷蘭交通部的興趣。「時代變了，」他回憶說。「人們變得更有環保意識，而丹麥的實驗證明，自行車共享是一種真正的可能性。」1999 年，一個新的 Witte Fietsen 計劃在阿姆斯特丹啟動。然而，騎白色自行車不再是免費的；每次出行需要花費一個荷蘭盾，並使用荷蘭郵政銀行開發的晶片卡進行支付。Schimmelpennink 設計了顯眼、堅固的白色自行車，鎖在特殊的架子上，可以用晶片卡打開—該計劃開始時有 250 輛自行車，分佈在五個車站。

5. 哥本哈根系統失敗

   Theo Molenaar, who was a system designer for the project, worked alongside Schimmelpennink. ‘I remember when we were testing the bike racks, he announced that he had already designed better ones. But of course, we had to go through with the ones we had.’ The system, however, was prone to vandalism and theft. ‘After every weekend there would always be a couple of bikes missing,’ Molenaar says. ‘I really have no idea what people did with them, because they could instantly be recognised as white bikes.’ But the biggest blow came when Postbank decided to abolish the chip card, because it wasn’t profitable. ‘That chip card was pivotal to the system,’ Molenaar says. ‘To continue the project we would have needed to set up another system, but the business partner had lost interest.’

   西奧．莫萊納是這個項目的系統設計師，他與 Schimmelpennink 一起工作。「我記得當我們在測試自行車架時，他宣佈他已經設計了更好的自行車架。但當然，我們不得不使用我們擁有的那些。」然而，這個系統很容易遭到破壞和偷竊。「每個週末之後，總會有幾輛自行車丟失，」莫萊納說。「我真的不知道人們對它們做了什麼，因為它們可以立即被識別為白色自行車。」但最大的打擊是，郵政銀行決定廢除晶片卡，因為它不賺錢。「晶片卡是系統的關鍵，」 莫萊納說。「為了繼續這個計畫，我們需要建立另一套系統，但商業夥伴已經失去了興趣。」

6. 維也納與巴黎系統成功運行

   Schimmelpennink was disappointed, but – characteristically – not for long. In 2002 he got a call from the French advertising corporation JC Decaux, who wanted to set up his bike-sharing scheme in Vienna. ‘That went really well. After Vienna, they set up a system in Lyon. Then in 2007, Paris followed. That was a decisive moment in the history of bike-sharing.’ The huge and unexpected success of the Parisian bike-sharing programme, which now boasts more than 20,000 bicycles, inspired cities all over the world to set up their own schemes, all modelled on Schimmelpennink’s. ‘It’s wonderful that this happened,’ he says. ‘But financially I didn’t really benefit from it, because I never filed for a patent.’

   Schimmelpennink 很失望，但是—以他的個性來說—並沒有持續多久。2002 年，他接到了法國廣告公司 JC Decaux 的電話，後者希望在維也納建立他的自行車共享計劃。「進展非常順利。維也納之後，他們在里昂建立了一個系統。然後在 2007 年，巴黎跟進。那是共享單車歷史上的一個決定性時刻。」巴黎的自行車共享計劃取得了意想不到的巨大成功，該計劃目前擁有 2 萬多輛自行車，它激勵著世界各地的城市建立自己的計劃，所有這些計劃都是以 Schimmelpennink 的計劃為藍本。「這很好，」他說。「但在經濟上我並沒有真正從中受益，因為我從未申請過專利。」

7. 公共自行車系統終獲青睞

   In Amsterdam today, 38% of all trips are made by bike and, along with Copenhagen, it is regarded as one of the two most cycle-friendly capitals in the world – but the city never got another Witte Fietsenplan. Molenaar believes this may be because everybody in Amsterdam already has a bike. Schimmelpennink, however, cannot see that this changes Amsterdam’s need for a bike-sharing scheme. ‘People who travel on the underground don’t carry their bikes around. But often they need additional transport to reach their final destination.’ Although he thinks it is strange that a city like Amsterdam does not have a successful bike-sharing scheme, he is optimistic about the future. ‘In the ‘60s we didn’t stand a chance because people were prepared to give their lives to keep cars in the city. But that mentality has totally changed. Today everybody longs for cities that are not dominated by cars.’

   在今天的阿姆斯特丹，38% 的旅行是透過自行車完成的，與哥本哈根一起，它被認為是世界上兩個最友好的自行車首都之一—但這個城市從未得到另一個Witte Fietsen 計劃。莫萊納認為，這可能是因為阿姆斯特丹的每個人都已經有了一輛自行車。然而，Schimmelpennink 認為這並不能改變阿姆斯特丹對自行車共享計劃的需求。「乘坐地鐵的人不會隨身攜帶自行車。但他們往往需要額外的交通工具來到達他們的最終目的地。」儘管他認為像阿姆斯特丹這樣的城市沒有一個成功的自行車共享計劃是很奇怪的，但他對未來持樂觀態度。「在 60 年代，我們沒有機會，因為人們準備用他們的生命來維持城市中的汽車。但這種心態已經完全改變。今天，每個人都渴望有一個不被汽車支配的城市。」