Lesson 36 Car Culture,Do you know how many cars are on road every day? What is happening on road every minute? Are cars good or bad? Here well read an article about traffic in Britain and talk about traffic problems.,With the improvement of living conditions, more and more people have their own cars. As a result, there are more cars are on roads, and more highways or express ways are built.Good or bad? Talk about traffic problems with your friends.,Make a mini survey in your group to collect information of traffic conditions in your city.,Use the key words in Exercise 2.,Interview your classmates about the general conditions of the traffic in your city. The following is for your reference.,A: Do you have a car? B: Yes, my family has a car? A: How often do you travel in your own car? B: Every day. A: How do you use your car, for long journeys or short ones? B: Often short ones. For example, my father goes to work, my mother goes shopping, or I go to school. A: Have you ever thought what would happen on the roads if everybody travel in his own car? B: Oh, ,Traffic in Our City,Traffic jams often occur on highways wherever two lanes must merge into one. Lanes of cars cannot merge if there are no large gaps between cars. Therefore, drivers who create large gaps between cars will ease this type of traffic jam.,When and how does a traffic jam happen?,Read the first part of the article ( on Page 42 ) to learn about the traffic in Britain. Take notes while reading.,Work in pairs asking and answering questions about what you have just read.,How many people have you learned from the conversation met with traffic jams that morning? What do A10, M11 and M25 mean? What is the main cause of traffic jams or road accidents? What does the writer complain about? How can the writer relate global warming and climate change with traffic?,Ask and answer questions according what you have just read about.,What excuses do some people give for using their own car so much? What are the advantages of buses over cars? How can you persuade other to share a car with you? What is the effect of advertisements on people? What do you think of Jenny Trowes advice?,Talk in your group about the traffic problems in your town or city in the past 3 years. Remember to take notes of important information.,To ease a jam:,Big cities are faced with serious traffic problems. There are often traffic jams. When you are trapped in a traffic jam, the following advice may be helpful.,Maintain a large space ahead of your car. Encourage one, two even three cars to merge ahead of you. If traffic slows to a complete stop, KEEP TWO CAR-LENGTHS OF SPACE OPEN AHEAD OF YOU. Never punish merging drivers by closing your gap.,Traffic problems in big cities,Read and learn about traffic problems in some big cities.,Los Angeles tops list for drivers getting stuck fuming,COLLEGE STATION, Texas (CNN) - Traffic jams in the United States are costing Americans $68 billion each year in wasted time and fuel, according to a new report.,Based on the analysis of 75 U.S. cities, the annual Urban Mobility Report from the Texas Transportation Institute finds the average rush-hour driver - not just commuters, but all drivers - wastes about 62 hours in traffic each year.,Thats not total travel time, thats just the extra time spent going slow or going nowhere because of traffic congestion. By several measures, the report found Los Angeles had the worst traffic. The report stated that the average Los Angeles rush-hour driver wasted 136 hours a year in slow or stopped traffic.,The runner-up metro areas in this time-draining category: San Francisco, California; Washington; Seattle, Washington; Houston, Texas; San Jose, California; Dallas, Texas; New York; Atlanta, Georgia; and Miami, Florida.,The report also measured cities according to a Travel Time Index , which looked at how much slower a particular trip takes during rush hour compared with the same trip driven when traffic is flowing freely.,Los Angeles topped that list, too. The study said a rush hour trip in Los Angeles takes an average 90 percent longer than the same trip during a non-rush hour period. The runner-up metro areas in this category: San Francisco, California; Chicago; Washington; Seattle, Washington; Miami, Florida; Boston, Massachusetts; San Jose, California; Denver, Colorado; and New York.,The study also found that rush hours are lasting longer. In 1982, the report found traffic was congested about 4.5 hours a day for the 75 cities studied. In 2000, traffic was congested an average of seven hours a day.,All of this demand cant be handled in the (rush) hour like it used to be, so traffic spills over, trails over into other hours, said Tim Lomax, one of the reports lead authors. And thats spreading to more of the urbanized areas, so instead of just the area in the beltway being congested, its a lot more than that now.,Lomax said roads and alternatives like public transportation and telecommuting arent keep