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  3. Traffic statistics paint a gloomy picture. To help solve their traffic woes, some rapidly growing U.S. cities have simply built

Traffic statistics paint a gloomy picture. To help solve their traffic woes, some rapidly growing U.S. cities have simply built

admin2009-04-27  53
问题     Traffic statistics paint a gloomy picture. To help solve their traffic woes, some rapidly growing U.S. cities have simply built more roads. But traffic experts say building more roads is a quirk-fix solution that will not alleviate the traffic problem in the long run. Soaring land costs, increasing concern over social and environmental disruptions caused by road-building, and the likelihood that more roads can only lead to more cars and traffic are powerful factors bearing do you a 1950s-style construction program.
    The goal of smart-highway technology is to make traffic systems work at optimum efficiency by, treating the road and the vehicles traveling on them as an integral transportation system. Proponents of this advanced technology say electronic detection systems, closed-circuit television, radio communication, ramp metering, variable message signing, and other smart-highway technology can now be used at a reasonable cost to improve communication between drivers and the people who monitor traffic.
    Pathfinder, a Santa Monica, California-based smart-highway project in which a 14-mile stretch of the Santa Monica Freeway, making up what is called a "smart corridor", is being instrumented with buried loops in the pavement. Closed-circuit television cameras survey the flow of traffic, while communications linked to properly equipped automobiles advise motorists of the least congested routes or detours.
    Not all traffic experts, l however, look to smart-highway technology as the ultimate solution to traffic gridlock. Some say the high-tech approach is limited and can only offer temporary solutions to a serious problem.
    "Electronics on the highway addresses just one aspect of the problem: how to regulate traffic more efficiently," explains Michael Renner, senior researcher at the Worldwatch Institute. "It doesn’t deal with the central problem of too many cars for roads that can’t be built fast enough. It sends people the wrong message. They start thinking. Yes, there used to be a traffic congestion problem, but that’s been solved now because we have an advanced high-tech system in place. Larson agrees and adds, Smart highways is just one of the tools that we will use to deal with our traffic problems. It’s not the solution itself, just part of the package. There are different strategies."
    Other traffic problem-solving options being studied and experimented with include car pooling, rapid mass-transit systems, staggered or flexible work hours, and road pricing, a system whereby motorists pay a certain amount for the time they use a highway.
    It seems that we need a new, major thrust to deal with the traffic problems of the next 20 years. There has to be a big change.
选项 A、Smart Highway Projects—The Ultimate Solution to Traffic Congestion
B、A Quick Fix Solution for the Traffic Problems
C、A Venture to Remedy Traffic Woes
D、Highways Get Smart—Part of the Package to Relieve Traffic Gridlock
答案D
解析 第二段指出，智能高速公路可以优化交通效率。但第四段提到，并不是所有的交通专家都认为它是解决交通堵塞的根本解决方案。概括了文章主题。
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