美国国家公共电台 NPR--Memorial Day launches what's expected to be an extremely busy summer travel season

Memorial Day launches what's expected to be an extremely busy summer travel season

Transcript¹

In a remarkable² turnaround for the airline industry, less than 1% of all flights scheduled were canceled — even though it was the highest number of people flying since the pandemic began.

A MART?NEZ, HOST:

The Memorial Day holiday launched what's expected to be an extremely busy summer travel season. Now, for the past 10 years, NPR's David Schaper has covered the economics of the transportation and travel industries and how we get around. He'll soon be moving on, but he joins us today for a final conversation about transportation. David, all right. We often get dire³ warnings about travel and safety on the road and in the air. So for the last few people trying to make their way home from Memorial Day getaways, how's the traffic been for them?

DAVID SCHAPER, BYLINE⁴: Well, you know, the roads and highways were pretty bad at times, I experienced firsthand Friday afternoon, heading out of town here in Chicago at a peak getaway time. But, you know, more people are shifting their travel. They're leaving earlier ahead of the holiday weekend or staying a little bit longer to avoid driving at peak times and facing all that highway congestion⁵. You know, that's happening with air travel, too. As far as flight disruptions, there were very few flight delays and cancellations, relatively⁶ speaking. Well below 1% of all flights scheduled were canceled over the weekend, even though we had the highest numbers of people flying since the pandemic began. And that's really a remarkable turnaround for the airline industry, which has struggled to meet a surge in demand last summer, starting with last Memorial Day weekend.

MART?NEZ: Scott Kirby, the CEO of United Airlines, was on the program last week, and he told us one of the biggest constraints⁷ on air travel is a lack of air traffic controllers. And you spoke⁸ with Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. How are he and the FAA addressing that?

SCHAPER: Well, you know, the FAA says it's short about 3,000 air traffic controllers, and the shortages are greatest in areas with the most congested airspace, including the New York area, which as of this spring had only 54% of the air traffic controllers it needs. Buttigieg says the agency is hiring hundreds of controllers to fill those critical jobs. But it's just not a quick, simple process to train them.

PETE BUTTIGIEG: To be an air traffic controller in a complex airspace, it takes not just a year of training to have the job in general, but at least another year to learn that geography in particular. And that's part of why the long ripple⁹ effects of Covid are still with us, even long after some of the worst days of the pandemic are behind us.

SCHAPER: So Buttigieg and the FAA have asked airlines to reduce the number of flights they're flying into and out of New York, Washington, D.C., and a few other places. Many airlines have agreed to do that and are just using bigger planes so they still can cut flights but meet that increased demand.

MART?NEZ: What about weather delays? I mean, we seem to be getting more of those.

SCHAPER: Yeah, you know, climate change is bringing more severe weather more often, and that affects air travel operations significantly, you know, from hurricanes and thunderstorms to wildfires and blizzards¹⁰. We've seen a runway flooded and closed for several days recently in Fort Lauderdale. Runways and roadways have been buckling¹¹ under extreme heat. Buttigieg says it's forcing officials to look at infrastructure¹² in new ways to make it all more resilient to withstand extreme weather. And he added that we can't design an airfield¹³ or a highway for the - in the 2020s the same way it was in the 1950s.

MART?NEZ: You mentioned infrastructure, President Biden's big infrastructure spending law, how's that been going?

SCHAPER: Well, you know, it is a game changer in the amount of funding devoted¹⁴ to fixing bridges, highways, railways, transit¹⁵ systems and airports. It's prioritizing resiliency and making more equitable¹⁶ infrastructure investments and undoing¹⁷ some of the harms from years past. But, you know, inflation is eating a big chunk¹⁸ of the $1 trillion plan. Costs for materials like concrete and steel have skyrocketed. So too have labor¹⁹ and equipment costs. So, you know, it might not have the same impact that Congress and the White House intended.

MART?NEZ: David, you've covered all sorts of news throughout your 20-plus years at NPR. Transportation, though, has been your main beat for the past decade. What do you think has been the most significant transportation story during that time?

SCHAPER: You know, for me, it's the Boeing 737 MAX plane crashes in Indonesia in 2018 and Ethiopia in 2019. You know, Boeing put in a flawed flight control system with just a single point of failure, something that should never happen in aviation. They hid it from regulators and pilots who didn't know how to respond when it erroneously forced those planes into steep nosedives. And really, it's a travesty²⁰. And the families of the 346 people who were killed in those crashes feel as though Boeing might never be held fully²¹ accountable.

MART?NEZ: That's NPR transportation correspondent David Schaper. David, thanks.

SCHAPER: You know, it's been a pleasure, A. Thank you.

1 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

2 remarkable   

adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的

参考例句：

• She has made remarkable headway in her writing skills.她在写作技巧方面有了长足进步。
• These cars are remarkable for the quietness of their engines.这些汽车因发动机没有噪音而不同凡响。

3 dire   

adj.可怕的，悲惨的，阴惨的，极端的

参考例句：

• There were dire warnings about the dangers of watching too much TV.曾经有人就看电视太多的危害性提出严重警告。
• We were indeed in dire straits.But we pulled through.那时我们的困难真是大极了，但是我们渡过了困难。

4 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

5 congestion   

n.阻塞，消化不良

参考例句：

• The congestion in the city gets even worse during the summer.夏天城市交通阻塞尤为严重。
• Parking near the school causes severe traffic congestion.在学校附近泊车会引起严重的交通堵塞。

6 relatively   

adv.比较...地，相对地

参考例句：

• The rabbit is a relatively recent introduction in Australia.兔子是相对较新引入澳大利亚的物种。
• The operation was relatively painless.手术相对来说不痛。

7 constraints   

强制( constraint的名词复数 )； 限制； 约束

参考例句：

• Data and constraints can easily be changed to test theories. 信息库中的数据和限制条件可以轻易地改变以检验假设。 来自英汉非文学 - 科学史
• What are the constraints that each of these imply for any design? 这每种产品的要求和约束对于设计意味着什么？ 来自About Face 3交互设计精髓

8 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

9 ripple   

n.涟波，涟漪，波纹，粗钢梳；vt.使...起涟漪，使起波纹； vi.呈波浪状，起伏前进

参考例句：

• The pebble made a ripple on the surface of the lake.石子在湖面上激起一个涟漪。
• The small ripple split upon the beach.小小的涟漪卷来，碎在沙滩上。

10 blizzards   

暴风雪( blizzard的名词复数 )； 暴风雪似的一阵，大量（或大批）

参考例句：

• Even in the summertime we might be struck by blizzards. 甚至在夏天，我们也可能受到暴风雪的袭击。
• Blizzards battered Britain for the third day. 大风雪袭击英国已进入第三天。

11 buckling   

扣住

参考例句：

• A door slammed in the house and a man came out buckling his belt. 房子里的一扇门砰地关上，一个男子边扣腰带边走了出来。
• The periodic buckling leaves the fibre in a waved conformation. 周期性的弯折在纤维中造成波形构成。

12 infrastructure   

n.下部构造，下部组织，基础结构，基础设施

参考例句：

• We should step up the development of infrastructure for research.加强科学基础设施建设。
• We should strengthen cultural infrastructure and boost various types of popular culture.加强文化基础设施建设，发展各类群众文化。

13 airfield   

n.飞机场

参考例句：

• The foreign guests were motored from the airfield to the hotel.用车把外宾从机场送到旅馆。
• The airfield was seized by enemy troops.机场被敌军占领。

14 devoted   

adj.忠诚的，忠实的，热心的，献身于...的

参考例句：

• He devoted his life to the educational cause of the motherland.他为祖国的教育事业贡献了一生。
• We devoted a lengthy and full discussion to this topic.我们对这个题目进行了长时间的充分讨论。

15 transit   

n.经过，运输；vt.穿越，旋转；vi.越过

参考例句：

• His luggage was lost in transit.他的行李在运送中丢失。
• The canal can transit a total of 50 ships daily.这条运河每天能通过50条船。

16 equitable   

adj.公平的；公正的

参考例句：

• This is an equitable solution to the dispute. 这是对该项争议的公正解决。
• Paying a person what he has earned is equitable. 酬其应得,乃公平之事。

17 undoing   

n.毁灭的原因，祸根；破坏，毁灭

参考例句：

• That one mistake was his undoing. 他一失足即成千古恨。
• This hard attitude may have led to his undoing. 可能就是这种强硬的态度导致了他的垮台。

18 chunk   

n.厚片，大块，相当大的部分（数量）

参考例句：

• They had to be careful of floating chunks of ice.他们必须当心大块浮冰。
• The company owns a chunk of farmland near Gatwick Airport.该公司拥有盖特威克机场周边的大片农田。

19 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

20 travesty   

n.歪曲，嘲弄，滑稽化

参考例句：

• The trial was a travesty of justice.这次审判嘲弄了法律的公正性。
• The play was,in their view,a travesty of the truth.这个剧本在他们看来是对事实的歪曲。

21 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。