I was almost killed today. Or at least close to spending a considerable amount of time at the pleasure of the Nanjing health authorities. I had made the dreadful mistake of stepping out onto the pavement. A delivery rider (one of the blue ones) was careering straight toward me, his eyes firmly fixed on his phone and the next order information therein.
我今天差点被杀了。 或者至少接近在南京卫生当局的喜悦中花费大量时间。 我犯了一个可怕的错误，踏上了人行道。 一名送货员（其中一个蓝色的）正向我走来，他的眼睛牢牢地盯着他的手機和其中的下一份订单信息。
It was impossible to get out of the way; all I could do was pin myself against the fence and breathe in deeply. In a hair breadth of a moment, he looked up and slammed on his brakes while pulling as best he could to the left, passing me by just another hair breadth. He did not stop, of course, but did manage to say, “不好意思” (excuse me) in a tone that was actually believable.
不可能让开；我能做的就是把自己钉在栅栏上，深呼吸。 在一瞬间，他抬起头，猛踩刹车，同时尽可能地向左拉，从我身边经过。 当然，他并没有停下来，但确实设法用一种可信的语气说“不好意思”（不好意思）。
Yet the pavement is question is more than just a pavement; it’s a “path” to be more accurate, a designated “walking zone”. Somewhat ironically, the path is intended for local residents to get some exercise and improve their well being. My well being was close to being terminated.
然而，人行道的问题不仅仅是一条人行道；它是一条更准确的“路径”，一个指定的“步行区”。 具有讽刺意味的是，这条路是供当地居民锻炼和改善福祉的。 我的健康快要被终止了。
Now there is some justification for e-bikes using the pavement on account the alternatives are just too cluttered. Take the road near Baijia Lake in Jiangning District for example; the one that sweeps around between 1912 and Golden Eagle.
现在，使用人行道的电动自行车有一些理由，因为替代品太杂乱了。 以江宁区白家湖附近的道路为例；这条路在1912年和金鹰之间横扫。
This is supposedly a three lane road. But during busy periods it is reduced to the centre lane only, with both the lanes on either side and their adjacent pavements given over to the parking of e-bikes.
这应该是一条三车道的道路。 但在繁忙时期，它只减少到中央车道，两侧的车道及其相邻的人行道都用于停放电动自行车。
While there can be no question that a good proportion of those on two electrified wheels in Nanjing are god-fearing, law-abiding citizens, it’s nevertheless obvious that many e-bike riders assume the right to behave in any way desired, oblivious (or perhaps not) to the fact that the law of the road which applies to cars so too does to e-bikes.
虽然毫无疑问，在南京，很大一部分骑着两个电动轮子的人是敬畏上帝、守法的公民，但很明显，许多电动自行车骑手有权以任何想要的方式行事，他们忘记了（或也许没有）这样一个事实，即适用于汽车的道路法也适用于电动自行车。
Hence to us pedestrians, who frankly are not having a lot of fun these days.
因此，对我们这些行人来说，坦率地说，这些天他们并不开心。
Now I don’t have an e-bike, which is strange when you think about it, because judging by the state of Nanjing’s streets today, there surely must be more than one for every last human being.
现在我没有电动自行车了，当你想到它时，这很奇怪，因为从今天南京的街道状况来看，每个人肯定不止一辆。
Us pedestrians were also among those to die in the fire of February this year in a Nanjing apartment building that killed 15. It was a tragedy that put the situation in perspective. Indiscriminate behaviour by e-bike owners puts lives at risk. Seen one of those videos the police love to trot out of accidents at intersections when an e-bike rider runs a red light and ends up under a car?
今年2月，南京一栋公寓楼的火灾造成15人死亡，美国行人也是丧生的人之一。 这是一场悲剧，让情况有了透视。 电动自行车车主的不分青红皂白的行为会危及生命。 看到其中一个视频了吗？当一名电动自行车骑手闯红灯，最后被车倒在车下时，警察喜欢在十字路口小跑出来？
While the result of their actions was indeed their own fault, the mental anguish felt by the (usually) innocent car driver is never going to leave them.
虽然他们行为的结果确实是他们自己的错，但（通常）无辜的汽车司机所感受到的精神痛苦永远不会离开他们。
It’s this kind of self endangerment that’s really been getting the authorities’ goat. Hence a giant publicity campaign which began about 5 years ago in an attempt to educate as to the dangers of improper e-bike behaviour. The 3 (and now 4) biggest offences unnecessarily occupying traffic police’s time these days are:
正是这种自我危害真正受到当局的折磨。 因此，大约5年前开始了一场大规模的宣传活动，试图教育人们了解不当电动自行车行为的危险性。 这些天不必要地占用交警时间的3大（和现在的4大）罪行是：
Not Wearing a Helmet
不戴头盔
To its credit, Nanjing is a safety-oriented city and so this directive has gone far from unheeded. In fact, a press conference held on 5 August, 2020, revealed that e-bike riders in Nanjing had adopted the then-new mandatory helmet-wearing law to the tune of 90 percent. The exception appears to be the school run, when ironically, they are arguably most needed. But then the penalties for not doing so are far from persuasive; when caught by law enforement on patrol, that would be a warning for the first offence, a ¥20 fine for the second and a ¥50 fine for the third. Hey, a helmet costs more.
值得称赞的是，南京是一个以安全为导向的城市，因此这一指令远未被考虑。 事实上，2020年8月5日举行的新闻发布会显示，南京的电动自行车骑手已经通过了当时新的强制性戴头盔法，达到90%。 例外似乎是学校运行，而具有讽刺意味的是，它们可以说是最需要的。 但是，不这样做的处罚远没有说服力；当巡逻时被执法部门抓住时，这将是对第一次犯罪的警告，第二次将处以20日元的罚款，第三次将处以50日元的罚款。 嘿，头盔更贵。
Disobeying Traffic Lights
不遵守交通信号灯
During that unmentionable period in China from the mid 1960s to the mid 1970s, the populace was encouraged to treat a red light as green, because red is the colour of action, of revolution. Half a century later, many seem not to have got the memo.
在20世纪60年代中期到70年代中期的中国那个难以置言的时期，鼓励民众把红灯当作绿色，因为红色是行动和革命的颜色。 半个世纪后，许多人似乎没有收到备忘录。
Riding in the Opposite Direction
往相反的方向骑行
The surest way to save a few minutes in the morning, and to end up in hospital, as most car drivers will only look left when turning right at an intersection. This very publication’s accountant discovered this some years ago, to then spend 3 months in bed at home while the wounds around the steel pins in her leg healed.
早上节省几分钟并最终住院的最可靠方法，因为大多数汽车司机在十字路口右转时只会向左看。 正是这个出版物的会计师几年前就发现了这一点，然后在家床上躺了3个月，而她腿上的钢针周围的伤口正在愈合。
[There really ought to be a further sub category, reserved for e-bike riders who manage to flout all three of these safety principles, simultaneously.]
[真的应该有一个进一步的子类别，为同时设法藇��这三项安全原则的电动自行车骑手保留。]
FUN FACT
有趣的事实
Said law made a significant number of people millionaires, almost overnight. When the law was enacted on 1 June, 2020, only 30 percent of e-bike riders bothered to wear a helmet, meaning a market worth ¥10 billion had, at the nod of a helmet, been created. Paying ¥10 or so to acquire the product in a wholesale market, hawkers were able to score a 700 percent markup in their passing on to vendors.
上述法律几乎在一夜之间使许多人成为百万富翁。 当该法律于2020年6月1日颁布时，只有30%的电动自行车骑手费心戴头盔，这意味着在头盔的点点下，创造了价值100亿日元的市场。 支付10日元左右在批发市场购买产品，小贩在转给供应商时能够获得700%的加价。
Less widely known is the illegal modification of e-bikes phenomenon, into which authorities have been conducting sporadic checks on e-bike retailers here and there, but rarely individual owners. The phenomenon commonly includes the addition of a canopy supported by shaped aluminum or flexible plastic poles, often to the extent that the e-bike in question now resembles a tank (just put a rocket launcher on there too and be done with it); and more commonly, and worryingly, removing the factory-default battery and replacing with something more powerful that is an enormous fire risk.
不太为人所知的是电动自行车的非法改装现象，当局一直在对这里和那里的电动自行车零售商进行零星检查，但很少对个人所有者进行检查。 这种现象通常包括增加一个由形状的铝或柔性塑料杆支撑的顶篷，通常以至于有关电动自行车现在看起来像一个坦克（只需在那里放一个火箭发射器，就可以完成它）；更常见，令人担忧的是，拆除出厂默认电池，并替换为更强大的东西，这有巨大的火灾风险。
In the wake of the fatalities in that fire, Nanjing authorities decreed that all residential communities over a designated size place a loud hailer at each of their gates with a message on repeat. “Don’t take your e-bike home to charge”, “Don’t take your e-bike’s battery home to charge”, etc., were its cries.
在火灾中造成死亡事件后，南京当局下令，所有超过指定规模的住宅社区在每个门上放置一个响亮的呼喊器，并重复一个信息。 “不要把你的电动自行车带回家充电”、“不要把电动自行车的电池带回家充电”等等，是它的呼声。
Ignored they were, as this correspondent witnessed one evening as his neighbour did just that. But being the Karen that he is, said offence was reported to residential community management, who promised to “reeducate” the individual concerned. The loud hailers fell silent soon thereafter.
他们被忽略了，正如这位记者一天晚上目睹了他的邻居所做的那样。 但作為Karen，他表示，罪行已向住宅社群管理部門報告，他承諾「再教育」有關個人。 不久之后，大声喧哗的呼喊者沉默了。
NOT SO FUN FACT
不那么有趣的事实
In a desperate attempt normally reserved for adults shown explicit images of road accidents at highway service areas, primary-school age children in Xuzhou were visited by police in June of 2023 to be given a Powerpoint presentation featuring photos of accidents involving e-bikes on which were their peers and associated grandparents, as a means to curb reckless behaviour.
2023年6月，警方访问了徐州的小学生儿童，他们进行了Powerpoint演示，其中有涉及电动自行车的事故照片，这些照片是他们的同龄人和祖父母，作为遏制鲁莽行为的一种手段。
Then there comes the scary part, revealing the consequences of two-wheeled reckless abandon.
然后是可怕的部分，揭示了两轮鲁莽放弃的后果。
On 25 September of this year, a woman with her son on an e-bike in Suzhou believed the road’s motorised lane to be the more convenient option. On the other side of the road was a Honda saloon whose driver felt the urge to turn across the double-yellow lines demarcating the road’s two carriageways. Oncoming was a Tesla whose driver was unfamiliar with the vehicle’s braking system. The ensuing carnage was the result of both cars spinning out of control and into the e-bike.
今年9月25日，一名妇女和儿子在苏州骑着电动自行车，认为道路的电动车道是更方便的选择。 路的另一边是一辆本田轿车，司机感到有冲动，要越过划定道路两条车道的双黄线。 迎面而来的是一辆特斯拉，司机不熟悉车辆的制动系统。 随后的大屠殺是两辆汽车失控旋转并进入电动自行车的结果。
Now I may have an ever-increasing amount of scratches on my car at the hands of e-bikes, but that woman’s son no longer has a mother.
现在，在电动自行车的手中，我的车上可能有越来越多的划痕，但那个女人的儿子已经没有母亲了。
