E-Scooters

Over the past two years, electric scooters have become ever-present in many of Europe and America’s biggest cities. Britain is the last major western European country to hold out against the     1     . E-scooters are not allowed on public roads, though people do ride them on cycle     2     and pavements . But where they are permitted, the number of e-scooter sharing companies soars     3     . To their     4     , e-scooters are revolutionary: the “iPhone Of urban transport”. To their critics, they are dangerous, anti-social and very annoying.

As with a dock less(无桩) bike, scooters are fitted with GPS trackers and wireless     5     . Customers download an app and scan a QR code on the scooter to unlock it. They are then     6     a small amount. Bird, which launched its e-scooter in Santa Monica, California in September 2017 charges $l plus 15 cents per minute, on average, in the US-to travel where they want to go, at a maximum speed of around 15mph. At night, the scooters are rounded up, charged and returned to popularity.

E-Scooters have the potential to solve some of the worlds biggest transport problems. Most cities are already dangerously polluted and heavily congested, and it is simply not an option to put more cars and taxis on the streets. Scooters are efficient; one kilowatt hour of energy carries a car     7     by petrol less than a mile, and an e-scooter 80 miles.

Scooters are clean, cheap, and they require little new infrastructure. For a country like car-     8     America, they could genuinely transform an     9     60% of US journeys under six miles. Even in European cities, which     10     have good public transport systems, they are very useful for travelling the“final mile”. According to Bird, 40% of taxi-riding journeys in London are under two miles, so e-scooters could help take a lot of cars off the streets.

The New York subway system is one of the largest in the world, ferrying nearly eight and a half million people around the city every week. Riders find more than    1    below the streets; among the dirt and the screech of the trains,there is also music.The subway system is like a free    2    hall,offering almost every kind of music.

You never know what you might    3    ,depending on the day of the week and the particular station.At a subway platform below Pennsylvania station one afternoon recently,Rawl Mitchell, an immigrant from Trinidad and Tobago,was playing the steel drums. He said he's been performing in the subway since the mid-1990s. “The people do    4    the music,"he said."They stand around listening and if it pleases them,they applaud and put their money in the case or whatever.They    5    clap and say things like 'It's nice.' They offer me some positive feedback.”

Singer-songwriter Rosateresa, who often sings on a station at 14th Street, has been at it almost as long.She moved from Puerto Rico to study classical voice several decades ago."My    6    is to sing like the jilguero,a Puerto Rican bird, which wakes up the sun,” said Rosateresa.

Mitchell and Rosateresa both perform    7    ,outside the transit authority's official "Music Under New York” program, which sponsor 150 performances each week, by more than 200 individuals and groups.

Like Rosateresa and Mitchell,Musicians who participate in “Music Under New York"    8    only whatever people choose to give.Opera singers Tom McNichols and Patricia Vital,part of a group called“Opera Collective",said they    9    performing in the subways, though it isn't lucrative. "Music in general is not about money, and 'Music Under New York' is definitely more about making opera     10     than it is about making a living,"McNichols said.