1 . Many people love to listen to music while driving. Thanks to the world’s musical roads, drivers now don’t need to turn the radio on.     1    

A musical road can create music when a car tires go over grooves (凹槽) on the road. To produce beautiful music, drivers must pass over the grooves at a certain speed. Signs often tell drivers the right speed.

    2    . Since the mid-1990, musical rads have appeared in many different countries.     3    . To warn drivers to the incoming music, all the roads are marked by colored musical notes that are painted on these roads. Drivers can decide whether to go over the grooves or not because they are set on the side of the road.

In Hungary, there is a musical road in honor of one of the country’s most popular musical performers — Laszlo Bodi. Bodi was the lead singer for the band Republic.     4    . Sadly, Bodi passed away in 2013. But people still remember him as there’s a road where drivers can hear 30 seconds of the Republic song “Road 67”.

    5    . In Indonesia, a road plays the first six notes of “Happy Birthday”. The fifth note is a little out of tune, though. This “mistake” keeps drivers awake and aware, and it has reduced the number of traffic accidents. Such is the power of music and musical roads.

3 . In the world of signals, there’s no doubt that red means stop. From red traffic lights to the stop sign itself, red draws your attention and sends a message to stop. But you probably don’t know that red stop sign has only been the standard for about sixty years. Before then, the octagonal (八角形的) traffic sign was yellow, with the word STOP in black letters. It wasn’t until 1954 that the stop sign became the bright red color with white letters that we know today.

In the early 20th century, stop signs actually weren’t any specific (特定的) color or even shape. Understandably, having no standards confused drivers, so the American Association of State Highway Officials (AASHO) decided to select a standard design in 1922. This is how the octagon shape came to be. The AASHO wanted to choose a shape that even drivers coming in the other direction would recognize, so that they would know that the oncoming traffic had a stop sign. They chose a yellow design with black letters, hoping that the colors would draw the drivers’ attention.

However, why didn’t they choose red at first? They actually did consider making stop signs red, since red already meant “stop” on electric traffic lights, which had been invented in 1912. The problem with that was that, back then, there was no red dye (染料) that wouldn’t fade over time.

By 1954, though, sign makers began using a special red dye that never changed. The red color fading was no longer a problem. That year, the Joint Committee on Uniform Traffic Control Devices said officially that stop signs would be red with white lettering.

7 . HS2 has announced the formal start of construction of the high-speed rail line between London and the West Midlands, which it claims will create 22,000 jobs.

The UK government will launch the main civil engineering contracts on Friday.

The contracts to build the first phase of the line, including viaducts, tunnels, and stations at Euston and Old Oak Common, were signed off by the Treasury during lockdown, after the government approved the controversial £106 bn project in February.

The company HS2 Ltd said most work to date had been preparatory, including design, ground clearance and demolition.

With coronavirus putting limitations on work since the formal notice to proceed in April, it said the launch on Friday of full construction work was “a step closer to reality” for the high-speed line, which has been more than 10 years in gestation and will not see full intercity services for another 10 years.

Midlands, a Balfour Beatty-Vinci joint venture, expects to be one of the biggest recruiters in the region over the next two years, looking for up to 7,000 skilled workers. Contracts to build stations, tunnels and viaducts will produce another 10,000 vacancies in greater London, HS2 said.

The first phase of the line, linking London and Birmingham, is expected to cost up to £45 bn, according to the Department for Transport and HS2 Ltd’s estimates, with full services now expected to begin running from Euston as late as 2036, although first high-speed trains might appear by 2029.

The eventual completion of the second phase, completing a Y-shaped network to Manchester and Leeds, remains in some doubt.

The parliamentary spending watchdog blasted HS2’s management in May in a report that warned that the scheme had gone “badly off course” and that further delays and cost overruns could not be ruled out.

9 . Istanbul has been around for centuries. Sure, it’s changed its name a few times over the years, but the location has always been the same. And in those years, there was no need at all for wide lanes. The term “rush hour” wasn’t even invented yet. The only traffic was an occasional horse-drawn carriage. The result is that the city center consists of very narrow streets.

All the action (night­life, tourist attractions, etc.) is located in the city center, making people travel daily between their homes in the suburbs and their offices in downtown Istanbul. Besides, Istanbul is not only surrounded (环绕) by water, it’s also twice divided by it. The only way to get from one shore to the other is through bridges. And it is true of all bridges. They’ll get stuck easily.

On a normal dry day, morning rush hour starts as early as 7 a.m. and lasts until around 10 a.m.. After a short cool ­ off period, traffic again starts peaking (达到高峰) from 4 p.m. to 9:30 p.m..

As soon as traffic jams start building up, drivers try to find alternative roads. And once found, they race through them trying to catch up on time already lost. But it doesn’t work. So they immediately turned to plan B. Make the most use of the road at hand. Lanes painted on the surface must be for decorative purposes, since you would be surprised how easily they can change a three-lane road into a five-lane one. On highways, the emergency lanes are taken, too. And of course, horns are blown as much as possible.

Of course the city’s government is making great efforts now to deal with these problems. Extra tunnels, subways, tramways and bus ­ only lanes have been made available or are under construction. Also Electronic Detection Systems are used to detect and fine drivers who abuse the emergency lanes or drive through red traffic lights.

And although Turkish drivers are certainly not among the worst in the world, paying little attention to basic traffic rule, scrowding into the smallest space available, turning across the roads and blocking emergency lanes make traffic jams unable to be dealt with timely. They’re also part of the problem.

10 . On a tram smoothly pulling into the heart of Luxembourg City, Marck gives a smile and takes a look at the fabric of the seat next to him. For him, the city’s trams are more than just transport. More even than the focus of his job. They are about transforming his country and, perhaps, changing the world.

Marck is the director general of Luxtram, Luxembourg’s modern trams. It first started running services two years ago. Next year, Luxembourg will become the world’s only country to get rid of fares on all its forms of public transport. Luxembourg’s traffic problems come from its army of workers. The population of the capital city almost doubles during the working day, when more than 110,000 people travel in and out.

After three decades when its roads have become so crowded, Luxembourg is going to do something remarkable. Free fares, and a plan to persuade people to switch from cars to trams or trains. Marck, along with many others, is excited to see what happens next. “The fact that this is free means that everyone can use it — young or old, rich or poor,” he said. “Everyone can say to themselves it’s better to leave the car at home. We must continue to improve and extend the network. It must always be comfortable, well-connected, efficient.”

Lydie Polfer, the city’s mayor, says she hopes to reach the point where more than a third of people come into the city using public transport — at the moment, it’s less than one in five. She said, “It’s not practical to ban cars because some people, like the elderly, need them. But everyone has to be aware that he or she can do something to improve the situation. There is an expression in German — you are not in the traffic jam — you are the traffic jam, and that is true. I think that making it free will be the biggest arguments for people to use public transport. ”