8 . During Amsterdam’s chaotic rush hour, nine -year-old Lotta Crok cycles to a very busy junction. “Look,” she says. “There’s traffic coming from everywhere. Four trams from four different directions. For a child on a bike, that’s really confusing!”

Lotta is the first junior cycle mayor in the world and her working area is the Dutch capital. You would think this challenge would be superfluous in a city known as the bicycle capital of the world. The number of bicycles in Amsterdam is estimated at 800,000 — more than the city’s 750,000 inhabitants. According to an estimate made 5 years ago, 490,000 bicyclists take to streets daily.

But children who cycle in Amsterdam face challenges. Lotta says, “The three biggest problems for us are cars, cycling tourists and scooters (小型摩托). The cars take up too much space, the tourists are always swinging side to side and stop when you least expect it, and the scooters simply run you over.”

Lotta became junior cycle mayor in June last year when she won a contest in which school children were asked to come up with plans to make cycling safer and more fun. Her idea was to add children’s bikes to the popular bike share programme.

Since Lotta was appointed junior cycle mayor, she has been busy, giving interviews, opening cycling contests in the city and being a jury (评审员) member during the Amsterdam Light Parade, an event in which Amsterdammers decorate their bikes with lights.

She is now planning a meeting with the city’s mayor to discuss ideas that children have come up with: “One of our proposals is a bicycle park where children can learn how to cycle. Right now, most of us learn it in the street, which can be quite busy. Another idea is to create an app for tourists to teach them the rules of cycling, because most of them really don’t know.”

Following the success of the Amsterdam scheme, cycle mayors around the world are now planning to appoint junior colleagues. “They see it works really well,” Boerma, the senior mayor, says. “I talk to the parents. Lotta talks to the children. And if you look at the city through the eyes of a child, you will also make it accessible for others. A city that’s good for an eight-year-old is also good for an 88-year-old.”

9 . An electric flying vehicle called Skai was shown yesterday near Los Angeles, California. Skai is made by Alaka’i Technologies. The vehicle has six rotors（旋翼）on the roof and seats inside for five people.

Like a drone（无人机）, the vehicle from Alaka’i Technologies takes off and lands vertically（垂直地）. It’s one of many similar electric flying vehicles in production, including ones from Boeing and Airbus. But most of them are powered by batteries, which can add a lot of weight. The Skai instead uses very light hydrogen fuel cells to run its rotors, giving it a range of 400 miles（644 kilometers）and the capacity to carry 1,000 pounds（454 kilograms）in people or goods, the company says.

Alaka’i says it’s planning a test flight near its Massachusetts headquarters. It will be flown by an on ⁃ board pilot（飞行员）, but the technology exists to eventually fly it remotely and even autonomously. However, it will be years before the Federal Aviation Administration（FAA）allows the autonomous flight of passenger vehicles, said Thaddeus Lightfoot, who helps companies navigate FAA rules.

“Drone⁃ like vehicles such as the Skai must first simply prove their airworthiness, like any common plane. After that, getting commercial certification is another complex process. The technology is interesting, but the regulatory road will be very long,”said Lightfoot, adding that the idea of allowing people to fly in a large aircraft without a pilot is“well outside the current regulatory system.”

Hanvey, CEO of Alaka’i Technologies, said that it could take at least a decade before the company realizes his goal of electric flying vehicles ferrying passengers over major cities at   nearly 120 mph. Before that, he hopes to see Skai aircraft used by first responders to send in food or water following disasters like hurricanes or wildfires. It could also serve as a mobile cell tower, staying in the sky for up to 10 hours over a neighborhood to provide communication services, he said.

10 . Driving while talking on the phone increases the likelihood of an accident and is actually more dangerous than driving drunk, U.S. researchers report. This holds true whether the driver is holding a cell phone or using a hands⁃free device.

“As a society, we have agreed on not tolerating the risk associated with drunk driving,”said researcher Frank Drews, an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Utah.“This study shows us that somebody who is conversing on a cell phone is exposing him or herself and others to a similar risk — cell phones actually are a higher risk,”he said.

In the study, 40 people followed a pace car along a prescribed course, using a driving simulator （模拟仪）. Some people drove while talking on a cell phone, others drove while drunk（meaning their blood-alcohol limit matched the legal limit of 0.08 percent）, and others drove with no such distractions. The researchers found an increased accident rate when people were conversing on the cell phone. Drivers on cell phones were 5.36 times more likely to get in an accident.

The bottom line: Cell⁃phone use was linked to“a significant increase in the accident rate,” Drews said.

The phone users did even worse than the inebriated, the Utah team found. There were three accidents among those talking on cell phones — all of them involving a rear⁃ending（追尾） of the pace car. In contrast, there were no accidents recorded among participants who were drunk.

In response to safety concerns, some states have declared it illegal to use hand ⁃ held cell phones while driving. But that type of law may not be effective, because the Utah researchers found no difference in driver performance whether the driver was holding the phone or talking on a hands⁃free model.

“We have seen again and again that there is no difference between hands⁃free and hand⁃held devices,”Drews said.“The problem is the conversation. The best solution to the problem is obvious: Don’t talk on the phone while you are driving. ”