《經濟學人》：菲律賓的吉普尼是世界上最華麗的公共汽車？
原文标題：
Transport in the Philippines
Not so fast
Jeepneys refuse to give way
Plans for better transport are idling
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THE JEEPNEYS of the Philippines are at once a national treasure and a dirty menace. When American troops went home in 1946, they left behind hundreds of military jeeps. Filipinos fitted them with benches, daubed them with gaudy illustrations and began charging commuters for lifts around town. The originals have now mostly been scrapped, but jerry-rigged replicas remain the most common way for people without cars to navigate big cities. They outnumber buses roughly ten to one.
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This is far from ideal. Ancient diesel engines sputter beneath most jeepneys’ garish bodywork. Transport of all kinds produces close to one-third of the Philippines’ energy-related carbon emissions. By one estimate jeepneys cough out 15% of all the pollution from road vehicles. Riders must often scurry into the street to clamber into the back of one. Jeepney passengers are said to be ten times more likely to experience a road accident than someone in a private car.
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The government would like to see them zoom off into the sunset. In 2017 it decreed that most jeepney drivers would be given three years to swap their bangers for cleaner, safer vehicles that look suspiciously like minibuses. They were promised cheap loans to help buy these machines, which are supposed to come with CCTV and Wi-Fi and which were, at the time, predicted to cost about 1.5m pesos ($28,700) each. But jeepney drivers and operators honked furiously. They said the plans would saddle them with debt while also pushing up fares.
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In the years since then the project has trundled ever further off course. By July 2019 it was being reported that only about 2% of old jeepneys had been upgraded. Not long after that covid-19 began battering drivers’ livelihoods, providing the government with an excuse not to start punishing slowcoaches. In March it declined once again to put its foot down. It said it would start offering jeepney drivers one-year permits allowing them to keep their jaunty jalopies on the road.
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Unless authorities plan to issue endless extensions, they will probably have to conjure up new carrots and sticks. Eric, a jeepney driver in Manila, speaks for many when he says he cannot ever imagine swapping his bright red vehicle for a spiffy new bus. The souped-up replacements have ended up costing more than was expected. And the 300-400 pesos he earns each day is already too little to get by on. The clanking trucks occasionally break down. But he says they are much easier than the newfangled ones to fix.
（恭喜讀完，本篇英語詞彙量439左右）
原文出自：2022年4月30日《經濟學人》Asia版塊
精讀筆記來源于：自由英語之路
本文翻譯整理：Irene
本文編輯校對: Irene
僅供個人英語學習交流使用。
【補充資料】（來自于網絡）
吉普尼（Jeepney）是菲律賓特有的公共交通工具，其價格低廉（平均每次不到10比索，約合1.5元人民币），乘坐友善（招手即停，路線覆寫範圍大），從誕生之時，就成為了菲律賓人的主要公共交通工具。
這些吉普尼真夠炫酷！每輛吉普尼的車身上，都繪有五顔六色不同的圖案，有些繪有聖經中的人物如聖母瑪利亞和天使，有繪有漫威電影中的超人如綠巨人等，力求把自己心愛的吉普尼打造成路上“最靓的仔”。除了車身張揚充滿個性的車繪，每台吉普尼還擁有自己的名字，如“菲律賓勇士”，“公路忍者”，“黑暗天使”等，都被巧妙的融合在車身的彩繪之中。菲律賓吉普尼司機經常自豪的說，在菲律賓你絕對找不到兩台相同的吉普尼。就像紐約的黃色的士一樣，吉普尼成為了菲律賓的文化标簽之一。
二戰結束後，在太平洋戰場上撤退的美軍留下了大量的淘汰Jeep車，因為菲律賓當地缺乏交通工具，一位音樂家推出美軍留下的一輛破吉普，加以改裝彩飾，加大後車廂的長度和高度，将座椅換成兩個平行的長椅，乘客在車廂中相對而坐，大大增加了新式吉普尼的載客量，成為馬尼拉第一輛Jeepney。Jeepney一詞，便是由Jeep(吉普車）和Jitney(美式英語中小型公共汽車）合起來構成。
幾十年過去，菲律賓有了城市輕軌，巴士和網約計程車，但吉普尼仍舊是菲律賓群眾使用最多的公共交通工具，原因自然是低廉的價格，和無處不達的路線網。Jeepney作為公共交通工具，跟計程車一樣，都是司機從租賃公司那裡承租。司機們不知疲倦的工作着，每天都要幹足16個小時的時間才會收工。車子都是從老闆手裡租來的，每天的租金是900比索，加油的錢也要花去750元左右，每天要跑到1600元錢後，賺的才是自己的，而真正落到手裡已經所剩無幾。勞動者的剩餘價值早已被資本控制者算得非常精确。
但吉普尼也給高速發展的菲律賓帶來了很多問題，在道路交通方面，大量的吉普尼招手即停，甚至為了争搶乘客在公路上随意大幅變道，不但容易造成交通堵塞，還加大了交通事故發生的風險；環保方面，現存的營運吉普尼普遍老舊，已經成為菲律賓機動車空氣污染的主要污染源。
為了應對吉普尼帶來的問題，菲律賓政府已經大力推進吉普尼更新計劃，不但規定了老舊吉普尼的報廢年限（15年的報廢年限，還曾招緻多方抗議反對），還聯合多家車企研發電動和清潔柴油吉普尼，并配備完整的安全系統如安全帶，車載攝像頭和限速裝置等。
【重點句子】（3個）
THE JEEPNEYS of the Philippines are at once a national treasure and a dirty menace.
The government would like to see them zoom off into the sunset.
Unless authorities plan to issue endless extensions, they will probably have to conjure up new carrots and sticks.
自由英語之路