How to solve the urban transportation problem

There is no single best approach to improving transit systems. What is needed is a mix of improvements that offers a range of opportunities to travelers. Improving service is more effective, if one wishes to attract riders, than lowering fares or taking cosmetic measures like bus shelters and elegant graphics. Bus improvements should be undertaken much more than they are. Better bus service in the inner city is probably the best way to serve the poor and minorities. Express buses from the suburbs, busways, and high-occupancy vehicle lanes have been successful where they have been tried. Increasing bus service is relatively inexpensive, compared to building rail lines.

There should be a great expansion of paratransit. Demand responsive services – utilizing taxis, vans, and small buses – will be the best way to provide public transportation in low-density suburbs and small towns. This can serve as a safety net for the minority of people who don’t have a car available in situations where most people do. This will also be a major way of serving the elderly and disabled.

More rational pricing of transit services should be widely adopted. This includes charging higher fares in the peak period and basing fares on distant traveled. Self-service fare collection is a desirable innovation that should be extended. It reduces operating costs and is compatible with graduated fares.

Nevertheless, the automobile will remain the primary mode of urban transportation. It is clear that making it more expensive to drive an automobile in the city would take cars off the road. This will boost transit use and mitigate automobile related problems such as accidents and air pollution. There are several ways to accomplish this:

1. raise fuel taxes;

2. raise annual vehicle registration fees. It is debatable whether fees should be based on weight or engine size, or on value (which would be more beneficial to the poor);

3. implement congestion pricing;

4. eliminate the subsidies that parking often gets. Free parking at work

could be made 100% taxable fringe benefit.

It would also help to put more constrains on where automobiles can be driven. There should be more automobile-free zones and transit/pedestrian malls in activity centres such as university campuses.

 

SPECIAL TERMS

Automotive industry

 

Automotive Industry: Branch of trade or manufacture of any wheeled conveyance.

Vehicle: Any conveyance usually wheeled e.g. car, lorry, motor-care for transportation of goods or passengers on land.

Engine: Machine that generates mechanical power.

Body: Main part of the vehicle where the seats are.

Mass-Production: Manufacture of large numbers of identical articles by standardized process.

Producer: Person who produces goods.

Exporter: Trader who exports goods.

Steam-Powered Vehicle: Automobile moved by engine worked or driven by pressure of steam.

Gasoline Engine: Type of engine worked or driven by burning of gasoline.

Technological Advance: Technological progress.

Precision: Accuracy: Freedom from error.

Standardization: Making of one shape, size, and quality according to fixed standard.

Synchronization: Co-ordination in time, speed etc.

Continuity: Going on without a break; the state of being continuous.

Interchangeability: Ability of things, parts to be changeable.

 

The modern automobile

 

System: Group of parts working together in a regular relation.

Subsystem: Separate, independent parts of any system.

Alloy: Mixture of metals.

Means: Method, process ways of transportation.

Market: Place or building where people meet to bay and sell goods.

Research and Development Engineer: Skilled and trained person who investigates and designs engines, machines etc.

Breakthrough: Major achievements, e.g. in technology.

Model: Design or structure of which copies are to be made.

 

Vehicle design

Design: Drawing or outline from which vehicle may be made.

Off-road Use: Use in broken ground, rugged country.

Customer: Person who buys things.

Engine Performance: Engine's notable action.

Propulsion: Propelling force, driving a vehicle forward.

Layout: Components arrangement of a vehicle.

Comfort: Contentment; physical well-being.

Option: Right or power of choosing.

Consumer: Person who uses goods.

Suspension: Means by which a motor-vehicle is supported on its axles.

 

Future systems

Automotive Market: Public place where people meet to buy or sell automotive vehicles.

Rectifier: Device, which converts alternating current to direct current.

Battery: Portable cell for supplying electricity.

Torque: Twisting force causing rotation.

Accelerator: Device for reducing the noise made by the exhaust of a petrol engine.

Blend: Mixture made of various sorts.

Cell: Unit of an apparatus for producing electric current by chemical action.

Environment: Surrounding, circumstances

Components of the automobile

Passenger car: Automobile for transportation of people.

Bus: Public conveyance that travels along a fixed route and takes up and sets down passengers at fixed points.

Lorry: Long, low, open motor-vehicle, for carrying goods by a road.

Body: Main outside structure of a motor vehicle.

Ignition: Electrical mechanism for igniting the mixture of explosive gases; being igniting

Cylinder: Shaped chamber in an engine in which gas works a piston.

Intake: Drawing a mixture of air and fuel into the cylinder.

Compression: Stroke during which a fuel mixture is compressed.

Power: Energy of force that can be used to do work.

Exhaust: Outlet in engine for gas that has done its work.

Valve: Mechanical device for controlling the flow of air, liquid, gas in one direction only.

 

Body

Body: Main part of the structure.

Roof: Top covering of a car, bus.

Pillar: Strong and important supporter.

Arrangement: Putting in order.

Windshield: Screen of glass in front of a motor-vehicle.

Visibility: Field of view.

Refinement: Perfection; Improvement; Elegance.

Retractable fabric top: Top of flexible material that can be moved back or in.

Sheet: Broad, flat piece of thin material.

Wrinkling: Small fold or line the surface of body.

Property: Special quality that belongs to smth.

Technique: Method of doing smth expertly.

Alloy: Mixture of metals especially a metal of a low value with a metal of a higher value.

Convertible Model: Model with a folding or detachable root.

Model: Design or structure of which copies can be made.

 

Chassis

Chassis: Base framework of a motor-vehicle on which the body and working parts are mounted.

Frame: Skeleton or main structure of an automobile.

Transmission: Clutch, gears and drive, which transmit power from the engine to the rear axle of a motor-vehicle.

Axle: Bar or rod that passes through the centres of pair of wheels.

Steering Mechanism: Device for directing the course of a car.

Brake: Device for reducing speed or stopping motion.

Suspension Members: Parts by which a motor-vehicle is supported on its axles.

Acceleration: Making or being made quicker; rate of increase; rate of speed per unit of time.

Shell: Outer structure of a vehicle.

 

Engine

Energy-Conversion System: Device or system for conversion energy from forms provided by nature into those most useful to society.

Piston: Round plate or short cylinder fitting closely inside in cylinder in which it moves up and down or backwards and forwards.

Internal-Combustion Engine: Type of engine in which power is produced by the explosion of gases inside the cylinder.

Reciprocating-Piston: Piston moving backwards and forwards in a straight line.

Stroke Cycle: Series of regularly repeated movements of piston.

Speed: Swiftness; rapidity of movement.

Mass-Production: Manufacture of large numbers of identical articles by standardized processes.

Make: Model, kind.

Range: Row, line or series of things, e.g. of energy-conversion systems.

 

Heat engines

Spark Ignition: Electrical mechanism for igniting the air-fuel mixture.

Power Plant: Apparatus, machinery for producing electricity.

Crankshaft: Shaft that turns or is turned by a crank (L-shaped arm or handle for transmitting rotary motion).

Velocity: Speed; rate of motion produced.

To-and-fro motion: Movement backwards and forwards.

Flywheel: Heavy wheel revolving on a shaft to maintain a constant velocity.

Heat Engine: Machine that converts heat energy into mechanical one.

Diesel Engine: Oil-burning engine in which ignition is produced by the heat of suddenly compressed gas

 

Fuel and lubrication

Fuel: Material for producing heat or other forms of energy

Lubrication: Putting oil or grease into machine parts to make them work easily

Operation: Working; way in which automobile works.

Volatility: Ability for easy change into gas or vapour.

Antiknock compound: Substance added to the fuel in a motor-car engine to reduce noise

Combustion: Process of fuel burning.

Performance: Efficiency.

Friction: The rubbing of the part against another.

Coolant: Kind of fluid used for cooling

Bearing: Device that supports moving parts and reduces friction.

Grease: Animal fat melted soft, used to lubricate axles.

By-Product: Substance obtained by the burning of fuel mixture in engine.

Transmission: Arrangement, which transmit power from the engine to the axle of a motor-vehicle.

 

Реферування тексту.

Реферат складається для передачі основного змісту документу, статті. Він не лише розкриває важливі сторони змісту,але й показує читачу, чи є для нього сенс повністю чи частково ознайомитись з даним джерелом інформації в оригіналі.

Середній обсяг реферату не перевищує 2000 друкованих знаків.

Реферат складається з наступних елементів:

1) Заголовок реферату, ім’я автора;

2) Вихідні дані

3) Стислий зміст реферату.

Слова та вирази:

1) The title of the paper is...

2) The paper is written by…

3) As the title implies the article describes…

The subject matter of the text is…

The paper gives valuable information on…

This paper discusses some problems relating to…

The paper considers the problems of…

4) The paper begins with a short (discussion on…, describing of…)

At the beginning the author (points out that…, speaks in detail…)

5) The author goes on saying that…

Than follows a discussion on…

Then the author goes on to the problem of…

The next part of the text (presents, discusses, describes)…

6) The author concludes with the statement that…

Finally the author gives much attention to…

The final part is reported the information on…

7) To my mind…

The article is of interest to…

The article is of great help to…

The paper gives a valuable information on…