17.坑洼的道路（1373）

Passage Seventeen

Potholed roads

坑洼的道路

【1】Britain's potholed roads caused a surge(explode) in vehicle breakdowns last year, according to motoring organisations, which said related call-outs were at their highest level for at least five years.

汽车组织称，去年英国坑洼不平的道路导致车辆故障激增，相关应召服务数量达到了至少五年来的最高水平。

【2】Figures from the AA and RAC recorded substantial(vast) increases as a result of the state of the roads, which the government pledged to tackle(solve) with money diverted from cutting the HS2 high-speed railway project.

英国汽车协会（AA）和英国皇家汽车俱乐部（RAC）的数据显示，由于道路状况，故障数量大幅增加，而政府承诺用削减HS2高速铁路项目的资金来解决这一问题。

【3】The AA said it had received 632,000 call-outs to vehicles damaged by road defects last year, including cars suffering punctures, an increase of 16% compared with the previous 12 months and the highest since 2018.

英国汽车协会表示，去年收到了63.2万个因道路缺陷造成车辆受损的服务诉求，其中包括汽车爆胎，与前12个月相比增长了16%，是2018年以来的最高水平。

【4】The RAC, on a much narrower sample of breakdowns it defines as pothole-related, said its calls were up 33%, with patrols attending nearly 30,000 related breakdowns in 2023, about 80 a day.

英国皇家汽车协会对其定义为与路面坑洼有关的故障进行了更小范围的调查，称其接到的电话增加了33%。2023年，巡逻队处理了近3万起相关故障，每天约80起。

【5】The rate peaked in the last three months of the year to its worst autumn since 2017. potholes are often formed when water enters cracks in the road surface, then freezes and expands, which the RAC said meant road damage was likely to increase over the coming months.

这一比率在去年最后三个月见顶，这个秋季成为了自2017年以来最糟糕的秋季。水进入路面裂缝后结冰和膨胀，通常会形成坑洞。英国皇家汽车协会表示，这意味着未来几个月道路损坏可能会增加。

【6】Common vehicle faults(breakdowns) caused by potholes include punctures, broken suspension springs, damaged shock absorbers and distorted wheels. Pot-holes pose an even greater danger to cyclists, some of whom have been injured or killed.

由坑洞引起的常见车辆故障，包括爆胎、悬架弹簧断裂、减震器损坏和车轮变形。坑洞对骑自行车的人构成了更大的危险，现已出现受伤或死亡的案例。

【7】British Cycling and the AA are among the organisations that called on government and local authorities to take further measures to tackle the problem, including making permanent(everlasting) repairs rather than using temporary patches.

英国自行车协会和英国汽车协会等组织呼吁政府和地方当局采取进一步措施解决问题，包括进行永久性维修，而不是采用临时修补方式。

【8】The AA president, Edmund King, said there was now "a vicious circle of potholes" being merely patched up and causing repeated damage. "What we need are more permanent repairs," he said.

英国汽车协会主席埃德蒙•金说，现在出现了一个“坑洼的恶性循环”，人们只是把坑洼修补好，却造成了反复的破坏。“我们需要的是更持久的修复。”他说。

【9】It comes after years of underfunding for councils and rising demand on Britain's roads. Rishi Sunak has pledged to tackle "the scourge(disaster) of potholes" with 8.3bn from scrapping HS2 north of Birmingham.

多年来，地方议会资金不足，英国道路需求不断增长。理希•苏纳克承诺，将从伯明翰北部废弃的HS2项目中拿出83亿英镑来解决“坑洼之患”。

【10】A Department for Transport spokesperson said it was "the biggest-ever funding increase for local road improvements and enough to resurface over 5,000 miles of roads".

交通部发言人表示，这是“当地道路改善方面有史以来最大的一笔资金增长，足以让5000多英里的道路重新铺设路面”。

【11】The government also expects to raise up to 100m to improve local roads through its crackdown on disruptive works. The proposals(suggests) include extending(prolonging) the period during which utility companies can receive10,000-a-day fines for works that overrun to include weekends and bank holidays.

政府还预计将通过打击破坏性工程筹集高达1亿的资金来改善当地道路。这些提议包括延长公用事业公司因工程超支而每天可被罚款10000英镑的期限，将周末和法定假日纳入其中。

【12】They also include the rollout of more "lane rental" schemes(plans) across the country, which force gas and water firms to pay councils to use the road for works.

提议还包括在全国范围内推出更多的“车道租赁”计划，迫使天然气和供水公司向市政委员会支付使用道路的费用。

【13】Rental schemes have been used by Transport for London since 2012, and adopted in Kent, West Sussex and Surrey, but the government has been calling on more councils to follow suit. A condition of the schemes will be that half the income must be used to repair roads and fix potholes.

自2012年起，伦敦交通局就开始采用租赁计划，肯特郡、西苏塞克斯郡和萨里郡也采用了这种方案，但政府一直在呼吁更多的地方议会效仿。该计划的一个条件是，收入的一半必须用于修路和修补道路坑洼。