誰來拯救拯救倫敦的特色出租車

London: the world’s most visited city. Home to the red double-decker bus, Big Ben, Tower Bridge, Changing the Guard and the black taxi.

倫敦：全世界遊客造訪次數最多的城市。這裏有紅色雙層巴士和黑色出租車、大本鐘(Big Ben)和塔橋(Tower Bridge)，遊客還可以觀看衛兵交接儀式(Changing the Guard)。

That “most visited city” tag, which caused a recent flurry, is a little dubious. It is based on the International Passenger Survey, which is based on a sample of interviews with passengers coming and going from the UK. The Office for National Statistics candidly describes it as an “estimate”.

“遊客造訪次數最多的城市”這個略顯可疑的頭銜，近來引發了一陣風波。國際旅客調查(IPS)在抽樣調查了出入英國的一些旅客之後，授予了倫敦這個頭銜，但英國國家統計局(Office for National Statistics)坦率地稱，這個結果只出於“大致的估計”。

Still, London draws millions of tourists and has become a global capital while maintaining its traditional symbols – except for that boxy black taxi, which is now the whatever-colour-you-like whatever-shape-you-can-think-of taxi. No city competing for tourists would throw away something as distinctive – except for London, which has.

儘管如此，倫敦確實吸引了數百萬遊客前來，在保持傳統特色的同時，也成爲了全世界的“首都”。但傳統的老爺車式黑色出租車並未得到保留，如今倫敦街頭的出租車五顏六色，車型也五花八門。任何一座致力於發展旅遊業的城市都不會拋棄一項如此明顯的特色，但倫敦卻這麼做了。

This week BYD, the Warren Buffett-backed Chinese carmaker, announced it would introduce “minicabs” into London, with the intention of eventually selling proper London taxis that are available not just for private hire but can ply the capital’s streets for fares.

得到沃倫•巴菲特(Warren Buffett)投資的中國汽車製造商比亞迪(BYD)近期宣佈，它將向倫敦投放一批“迷你出租車”，並期望最終能賣出像樣的倫敦“出租車”——不僅能提供私人出租車服務，還能充當行駛固定路線的收費大巴。

It is the latest of a slew of potential competitors to the London Taxi Company, builder of the TX4, the classy, roomy traditional-style cab that says “London” to potential visitors from all over the world.

倫敦出租車公司(London Taxi Company)面對許多競爭者，比亞迪是最新出現的一個。倫敦出租車公司生產的TX4氣派、寬敞、造型彷彿“老爺車”，一直以來都是來自世界各地的遊客心目中“倫敦”的代名詞。

BYD follows Nissan and Metrocab – part of the Frazer-Nash group – which plan to sell taxis in London, and Mercedes-Benz, whose Vito people carriers are already ploughing through the capital as licensed taxis.

在比亞迪之前，日產(Nissan)和Frazer-Nash集團旗下的Metrocab也計劃向倫敦出售出租車，而梅賽德斯-奔馳(Mercedes-Benz)旗下的威霆(Vito)乘用車已經獲得出租車牌照、成爲了倫敦街頭的常見面孔。

The Vito taxis remind me of the Monty Python sketch in which John Cleese claims to have a cat licence and a post office clerk says: “That is a dog licence with the word ‘dog’ crossed out and ‘cat’ written in, in crayon.”

威霆出租車讓我想起巨蟒劇團(Monty Python)表演中的一幕：約翰•克里斯(John Cleese)拿着一張貓證給郵局工作人員看，而郵局工作人員說，“這是張狗證，你只不過把狗字劃掉，用鉛筆寫上了個貓字。”

The Vito vehicles are not London taxis. They are vans with yellow lighted “taxi” signs jammed on their roofs. They are infuriating proof that London has lost its way.

威霆出租車根本就不是“倫敦出租車”，只是頂上裝着“出租車”標誌燈的貨車。看到這種出租車行駛在倫敦街頭，我們只能惱火地得出這樣一個結論：倫敦已經喪失了自己的風格。

There are mitigating factors. While the traditional London taxi is a design beauty, its manufacturer has had one financial prang after another. Once a consortium of manufacturers and dealers, it became a division of engineer Manganese Bronze, which went into administration and was taken over last year by China’s Geely. So the London Taxi Company cannot claim to be a reliable monopoly.

考慮到如下因素，倫敦喪失了自己風格也情有可原。首先，儘管傳統的倫敦出租車在設計上堪稱經典，但其製造商在財務上卻災禍不斷。它原本是一家旗下兼有製造商和經銷商的財團，後來卻被錳銅控股(Manganese Bronze)收入旗下，接着錳銅控股進入破產保護程序，去年被中國的吉利(Geely)收購。因此，我們不能說倫敦出租車公司是個靠譜的壟斷商。

Second, Boris Johnson, London’s mayor, is trying to cut the capital’s air pollution by insisting that its taxis produce zero emissions by 2018.

其次，倫敦市長鮑里斯•約翰遜(Boris Johnson)正努力改善倫敦的空氣污染狀況，他堅持要求倫敦的出租車在2018年底前實現零排放。

The offerings of BYD, Nissan and Metrocab will be electric, but then Geely says it plans to produce electric cabs too.

比亞迪、日產和Metrocab將推出電動出租車，不過吉利隨後也表示，它也計劃生產電動出租車。

So what is wrong with the new cabs? London has not achieved its international pre-eminence by standing still but its genius, indeed the British genius, is to build on what went before. The London Underground’s logo, trains and map have modernised without losing the look that made them so recognisable.

那麼，新式出租車有何不好？倫敦之所以能取得如今的國際優勢地位，並不是憑藉其保持不變的能力，相反，倫敦的天賦在於能夠在過去的基礎上開拓創新。倫敦地鐵(London Underground)在更新自己的logo、列車和路線圖時，都一直保留着原有外觀中那些可辨識度非常高的元素。

The same is true of London’s buses. The new Routemaster bus, one of Mr Johnson’s pet projects, updates previous models while, in design terms, quoting from them. Mr Johnson has banished the dreadful single-decker “bendy buses” from London’s streets.

倫敦的巴士也是一樣。Routemaster巴士的更新，是約翰遜重點關注的項目。新式Routemaster巴士在更新舊車型的同時，也在設計上仿照了舊車型。約翰遜已將奇醜的單層“彎曲大巴”(bendy bus)趕出了倫敦街頭。

Nissan seems to understand London’s way of doing things. Pictures of its NV200 taxi, which it plans to build in Coventry, home of the London taxi, suggest it will pay homage to the traditional design while giving its cab a modernised, but still recognisable, look.

日產似乎理解倫敦的風格。從圖片上看，日產的NV200出租車將尊重傳統設計。該車型外觀看上去更加現代，但仍然能讓人一眼認出這是倫敦出租車。日產計劃在考文垂生產這款出租車，那裏也是傳統倫敦出租車的製造地。

Metrocab’s design appears to be based on similar principles, but BYD’s e6 looks set to follow the Mercedes “cat licence” route.

Metrocab的設計看上去也遵循類似的原則，但比亞迪的e6似乎打算走梅賽德斯式“貓證”路線。

This could have been avoided if Transport for London, which licenses taxis, had insisted on a recognisably London design for new entrants. That would not be over-intrusive for an authority that already specifies the distance between seats and the maximum tint of the windows.

如果負責頒發出租車牌照的倫敦運輸局(TfL)明確規定，新加入的出租車必須遵循倫敦統一的設計，那麼這種情況原本是可以避免的。鑑於該局已經規定了座位的寬度、車窗的最深顏色，規定出租車須遵循統一設計應該不算過分。

Failing that, it could have insisted that all London taxis be black. The traditional cabs have been allowed other colours for years now, but if taxis are permitted to be different shapes, they should all be London’s traditional colour. (Black Mercedes Vitos are marginally less ghastly than the blue or grey ones.)

儘管做不到這一點，倫敦運輸局至少可以堅持要求所有倫敦出租車都爲黑色。倫敦出租車早在多年前就可以有別的顏色了，但如果出租車的車型可以不必統一，那麼就應該規定它們都爲倫敦出租車傳統的黑色。（黑色的梅賽德斯威霆雖然依然難看，但比藍色或灰色的威霆看上去順眼多了。）

New York’s taxi rules state that “the exterior of the vehicle must be painted taxi yellow” – and who could imagine the Big Apple agreeing to anything else?

紐約的出租車規定是，“車身顏色必須爲出租車黃”。對外號“大蘋果”的紐約而言，允許任何其他顏色的出租車出現在街頭都是不可想象的。

We can still win London’s battle. If you approach a taxi rank or hail a cab in the street and an interloper offers you a ride, say: “Sorry, mate, I want a real London taxi.”

我們依然有望贏得這場“倫敦風格保衛戰”。如果你在出租車招呼站打車，或在街上招手打車，而一輛“新式”出租車停在你面前，你可以說：“對不起，老弟，我想打一輛真正的倫敦出租車。”