Bikeshareprogramsrangefromsmall,community-basedprograms...

问题详情：

Bike share programs range from small, community-based programs that offer bikes for free use to larger, technology-based services that involve public and private partnerships. Whichever form, they share common goals: fewer traffic jams in large cities, more lasting means of transportation, improved safety of communities and better health for riders.

While many Europeans have relied on biking as a form of transportation for many years, bikes share programs were introduced in large cities of the U.S. to encourage non-bike riders to join along and make it convenient for people to get around town without having to worry about locking up their bike or maintaining it.

This original programs that offered free bikes were ruined by theft and vandalism(故意破坏), but newer technology has helped decrease crime. Most large programs have electronic cards, computer or telecommunication tracking, and a system that stores credit card information. Bikes are usually clearly designed or colored so they are immediately recognized and some have parts that won’t work on other bikes. With membership fees at usually around forty dollars every year, they are significantly cheaper than driving and public transportation.

In the United States, community bike programs have been around for years. Portland’s Yellow Bike Project started in 1994. SmartBike DC, which started in 2008, and over one hundred bikes spread around Washington, D.C. New York City has an experimental bike share program in the summer; Portland, Minneapolis, Arlington, San Francisco, Boston, and Chicago are all intending to start small bike share programs.

Colleges have also been interested in community bikes. At the University of New England, for instance, students are given a $260 bicycle, for free, in exchange for leaving their car at home with their parents. However, many have had to stop programs due to unreturned bikes and vandalism

Starting bike share programs isn’t easy. Even the large programs in Europe still face theft and vandalism, and ridership drops during the winter and maintenance fees can add up. One disadvantage in the U.S. is that many communities aren’t set up for biking; they’re set up for driving. Long travels and a lack of bike lanes can’t necessarily be solved with easy-to-access bikes. Yet for those cities that are relatively flat and crowded, bike share programs —and increased bike ridership in general — offer so many benefits you have to wonder if two wheels might be the ride of the future.

Title: Bike Share Program

【回答】

71. reduce      72. storing         73. recognize       74. Examples        75. charge

76. convenience 77. Disadvantages       78. returned        79. increase        80. instead

知识点：任务型阅读

题型：未分类